BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET 
IN  UTAH 


Under  the  Prophet 
in  Utah 

The  National  Menace  of  a  Political  Priestcraft 
BY 

FRANK  J.  CANNON 

Formerly  United  States  Senator  from  Utah 

AND 
HARVEY  J.  O'HIGGINS 

Author 
"The  Smoke-Eaters,"  "Don-a-Dreams,"  etc. 


THE  C.  M.  CLARK  PUBLISHING  CO. 

BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 


•C22 


Copyright  1911 

By 

THE  C.  M.  CLARK  PUBLISHING  Co. 

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 


All  rights  reserved 


xj        (        O 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

CONTENTS 


Chapter  Page 

Note 7 

Introduction 9 

Foreword 19 

I  In  the  Days  of  the  Raid       ....  23 

II  On  a  Mission  to  Washington      ...  44 
fv. 

III  Without  a  Country 66 

IV  The  Manifesto  95 
/H 

V  On  the  Road  to  Freedom     ....  112 

VI     The  Goal— and  After 138 

VII     The  First  Betrayals 159 

VIII  The  Church  and  the  Interests    ...  182 

IX     At  the  Crossways 205 

X     On  the  Downward  Path 220 

XI     The  Will  of  the  Lord 236 

XII  The  Conspiracy  Completed  ....  250 

XIII  The  Smoot  Exposure 267 

XIV  Treason  Triumphant 285 

XV  The  Struggle  for  Liberty      ....  301 

XVI     The  Price  of  Protest 318 

XVII     The  New  Polygamy 338- 

XVIII  The  Prophet  of  Mammon     ....  360 

XIX  The  Subjects  of  the  Kingdom    ...  378 

XX  Conclusion  395 


NOTE 

: 

When  Harvey  J.  O'Higgins  was  in  Denver,  in  the 
spring  of  1910,  working  with  Judge  Ben  B.  Lindsey 
on  the  manuscript  of  "The  Beast  and  the  Jungle," 
for  Everybody's  Magazine,  he  met  the  Hon.  Frank  J. 
Cannon,  formerly  United  States  Senator  from  Utah, 
and  heard  from  him  the  story  of  the  betrayal  of  Utah 
by  the  present  leaders  of  the  Mormon  Church.  This 
story  the  editor  of  Everybody's  Magazine  commis- 
sioned Messrs.  Cannon  and  O'Higgins  to  write.  They 
worked  on  it  for  a  year,  verifying  every  detail  of  it 
from  government  reports,  controversial  pamphlets, 
Mormon  books  of  propaganda,  and  the  newspaper 
files  of  current  record.  -  It  ran  through  nine  numbers 
of  the  magazine,  and  not  so  much  as  a  successful 
contradiction  was  ever  made  of  one  of  the  innumerable 
incidents  or  accusations  that  it  contains.  It  is  here 
published  in  book  form  at  somewhat  greater  length 
than  the  magazine  could  print  it.  It  is  a  joint  work, 
but  the  autobiographic  "I"  has  been  used  through- 
out, because  it  is  Mr.  Cannon's  personal  narrative 
of  his  personal  experience. 


INTRODUCTION 

This  is  the  story  of  what  has  been  called  "the  great 
American  despotism." 

^  It  is  the  story  of  the  establishment  of  an  absolute 
throne  and  dynasty  by  one  American  citizen  over  a 
half -million  others. 

And  it  is  the  story  of  the  amazing  reign  of  this  one 
man,  Joseph  F.  Smith,  the  Mormon  Prophet,  a  relig- 
ious fanatic  of  bitter  mind,  who  claims  that  he  has 
been  divinely  ordained  to  exercise  the  awful  authority 
of  God  on  earth  over  all  the  affairs  of  all  mankind, 
and  who  plays  the  anointed  despot  in  Utah  and  the 
surrounding  states  as  cruelly  as  a  Sultan  and  more 
securely  than  any  Czar. 

To  him  the  Mormon  people  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of 
more  than  two  million  dollars  in  tithes;  and  he  uses 
that  income,  to  his  own  ends,  without  an  accounting. 
He  is  president  of  the  Utah  branch  of  the  sugar  trust, 
and  of  the  local  incorporations  of  the  salt  trust;  and 
he  supports  the  exactions  of  monopoly  by  his  financial 
absolutism,  while  he  defends  them  from  competition 
by  his  religious  power  of  interdict  and  excommuni- 
cation. He  is  president  of  a  system  of  "company 
stores,"  from  which  the  faithful  buy  their  merchan- 
dise; of  a  wagon  and  machine  company  from  which 
the  Mormon  farmers  purchase  their  vehicles  and 
implements;  of  life-insurance  and  fire-insurance 
companies,  of  banking  institutions,  of  a  railroad,  of  a 
knitting  company,  of  newspapers,  which  the  Mormon 
people  are  required  by  their  Church  to  patronize, 
and  through  which  they  are  exploited,  commercially 
and  financially,  for  the  sole  profit  of  the  sovereign 
of  Utah  and  his  religious  court. 

He  is  the  political  Boss  of  the  state,  delivering 

9 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  votes  of  his  people  by  revelation  of  the  Will  of 
God,  practically  appointing  the  United  States  Sena- 
tors from  Utah — as  he  practically  appoints  the 
marshals,  district  attorneys,  judges,  legislators, 
officers  and  administrators  of  law  throughout  his 
"Kingdom  of  God  on  Earth" — and  ruling  the  non- 
Mormons  of  Utah,  as  he  rules  his  own  people,  by 
virtue  of  his  political  and  financial  partnership  with 
the  great  "business  interests"  that  govern  and  exploit 
this  nation,  and  his  Kingdom,  for  their  own  gain,  and 
his. 

He  lives,  like'  the  Grand  Turk,  openly  with  five 
wives,  against  the  temporal  law  of  the  state,  against 
the  spiritual  law  of  his  Kingdom,  and  in  violation 
of  his  own  solemn  covenant  to  the  country — which 
he  gave  in  1890,  in  order  to  obtain  amnesty  for  him- 
self from  criminal  prosecution  and  to  help  Utah  obtain 
the  powers  of  statehood  which  he  has  since  usurped. 
He  secretly  preaches  a  proscribed  doctrine  of  polyg- 
amy as  necessary  to  salvation;  he  publicly  denies 
his  own  teaching,  so  that  he  may  escape  responsibility 
for  the  sufferings  of  the  "plural  wives"  and  their 
unfortunate  children,  who  have  been  betrayed  by 
the  authority  of  his  dogma.  And  these  women,  by 
the  hundreds,  seduced  into  clandestine  marriage 
relations  with  polygamous  elders  of  the  Church, 
unable  to  claim  their  husbands — even  in  some  cases 
disowning  their  children  and  teaching  these  children 
to  deny  their  parents — are  suffering  a  pitiful  self- 
immolation  as  martyrs  to  the  religious  barbarism 
of  his  rule. 

Demanding  unquestioning  obedience  in  all  things, 
as  the  "mouthpiece  of  the  Lord,"  and  "sole  vice- 
gerent of  God  on  Earth,"  he  enforces  his  demands  by 
his  religious,  political  and  financial  control  of  the 
faith,  the  votes  and  the  property  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
He  is  at  once — as  the  details  of  this  story  show — "the 
modern  'money  king/  the  absolute  political  Czar, 

10 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  social  despot  and  the  infallible  Pope  of  his  King- 
dom." 

Ex-Senator  Cannon  not  only  exposes  but  accounts 
for  and  explains  the  conditions  that  have  made  the 
Church-controlled  government  of  Utah  less  free,  less 
of  a  democracy,  a  greater  tyranny  and  more  of  a 
disgrace  to  the  nation  than  ever  the  corporation  rule 
of  Colorado  was  in  the  darkest  period  of  the  Cripple 
Creek  labor  war.  He  shows  the  enemies  of  the  repub- 
lic encouraging  and  profiting  by  the  shame  of  Utah 
as  they  supported  and  made  gain  of  Colorado's  past 
disgrace.  He  shows  the  piratical  "Interests,"  at 
Washington,  sustaining,  and  sustained  by,  the  mis- 
government  of  Utah,  in  their  campaign  of  national 
pillage.  He  shows  that  the  condition  of  Utah  today 
is  not  merely  a  local  problem ;  that  it  affects  and  con- 
cerns the  people  of  the  whole  country;  that  it  can 
only  be  cured  with  their  aid. 

The  outside  world  has  waited  many  years  to  hear 
the  truth  about  the  Mormons;  here  it  is — told  with 
sympathy,  with  affection,  by  a  man  who  steadfastly 
defended  and  fought  for  the  Mormon  people  when 
their  present  leaders  were  keeping  themselves  care- 
fully inconspicuous.  The  Mormon  system  of  religious 
communism  has  long  been  known  as  one  of  the  most 
interesting  social  experiments  of  modern  civilization; 
here  is  an  intimate  study  of  it,  not  only  in  its  success 
but  in  the  failure  that  has  come  upon  it  from  the 
selfish  ambitions  of  its  leaders.  The  power  of  the 
Mormon  hierarchy  has  been  the  theme  of  much  imagi- 
native fiction;  but  here  is  a  story  of  church  tyranny 
and  misgovernment  in  the  name  of  God,  that  outrages 
the  credibilities  of  art.  That  such  a  story  could  come 
out  of  modern  America — that  such  conditions  could 
be  possible  in  the  democracy  today — is  an  amazement 
that  staggers  belief. 


11 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

II 

Hon.  Frank  J.  Cannon  is  the  son  of  George  Q. 
Cannon  of  Utah,  who  was  First  Councillor  of  the 
Mormon  Church  from  1880  to  1901.  After  the  death 
of  Brigham  Young,  George  Q.  Cannon's  diplomacy 
saved  the  Mormon  communism  from  destruction  by 
the  United  States  government.  It  was  his  influence 
that  lifted  the  curse  of  polygamy  from  the  Mormon 
faith.  Under  his  leadership  Utah  obtained  the  right 
of  statehood;  and  his  financial  policies  were  estab- 
lishing the  Mormon  people  in  industrial  prosperity 
when  he  died. 

In  all  these  achievements  the  son  shared  with  his 
father,  and  in  some  of  them — notably  in  the  obtaining 
of  Utah's  statehood — he  had  even  a  larger  part  than 
George  Q.  Cannon  himself.  When  the  Mormon  com- 
munities, in  1888,  were  being  crushed  by  proscription 
and  confiscation  and  the  righteous  bigotries  of  Federal 
officials,  Frank  J.  Cannon  went  to  Washington,  alone 
— almost  from  the  doors  of  a  Federal  prison — and, 
by  the  eloquence  of  his  plea  for  his  people,  obtained 
from  President  Cleveland  a  mercy  for  the  Mormons 
that  ail  the  diplomacies  of  the  Church's  politicians 
had  been  unable  to  procure.  Again,  in  1890,  when 
the  Mormons  were  threatened  with  a  general  dis- 
franchisement  by  means  of  a  test  oath,  he  returned 
to  Washington  and  saved  them,  with  the  aid  of  James 
G.  Blaine,  on  the  promise  that  the  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice of  polygamy  were  to  be  abandoned  by  the  Mormon 
Church;  and  he  assisted  in  the  promulgation  and 
acceptance  of  the  famous  "manifesto"  of  1890,  by 
which  the  Mormon  Prophet,  as  the  result  of  a  "divine 
revelation,"  withdrew  the  doctrine  of  polygamy 
from  the  practice  of  the  faith. 

He  organized  the  Republican  party  in  Utah,  and 
led  it  in  the  first  campaigns  that  divided  the  people 
of  the  territory  on  the  lines  of  national  issues  and 

12 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

freed  them  from  the  factions  of  a  religious  dispute. 
He  delivered  to  Washington  the  pledges  of  the  Mor- 
mon leaders,  by  which  the  emancipation  of  their  people 
from  hierarchical  domination  was  promised  and  the 
right  of  statehood  finally  obtained.  He  was  elected 
the  first  United  States  Senator  from  Utah,  against 
the  unwilling  candidacy  of  his  own  father,  when  the 
intrigues  of  the  Mormon  priests  pitted  the  father 
against  the  son  and  violated  the  Church's  promise 
of  non-interference  in  politics  almost  as  soon  as  it 
had  been  given. 

It  was  his  voice,  in  the  Senate,  that  helped  to  re- 
awaken the  national  conscience  to  the  crimes  of 
Spanish  rule  in  Cuba, when  the  "financial  interests" 
of  this  country  were  holding  the  government  back 
from  any  interference  in  Cuban  affairs.  He  was  one 
of  the  leaders  in  Washington  of  the  first  ill-fated 
"Insurgent  Republican"  movement  against  the  con- 
trol of  the  Republican  party  by  these  same  piratical 
"interests;"  and  he  was  the  only  Republican  Senator 
who  stood  to  oppose  them  by  voting  against  the 
iniquitous  Dingley  tariff  bill  of  1897.  He  delivered 
the  speech  of  defiance  at  the  Republican  national 
convention  of  1896,  when  four  "Silver  Republican" 
Senators  led  their  delegations  out  of  that  convention 
in  revolt.  And  by  all  these  acts  of  independence 
he  put  himself  in  opposition  to  the  politicians  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  who  were  allying  themselves  with 
Hanna  and  Aldrich,  the  sugar  trust,  the  railroad  lobby, 
and  the  whole  financial  and  commercial  Plunderbund 
?~i  politics  that  has  since  come  to  be  called  "The 
System." 

He  returned  to  Utah  to  prevent  the  sale  of  a  United 
States  Senatorship  by  the  Mormon  Church;  and, 
though  he  was  himself  defeated  for  re-election,  he 
helped  to  hold  the  Utah  legislature  in  a  deadlock  that 
prevented  the  selection  of  a  successor  to  his' seat. ^  He 
fought  to  compel  the  leaders  of  the  Church  to  fulfil 

13 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  pledges  which  they  had  authorized  him  to  give 
in  Washington  when  statehood  was  being  obtained. 
After  his  father's  death,  when  these  pledges  began 
to  be  openly  violated,  he  directed  his  attack  particu- 
larly against  Joseph  F.  Smith,  the  new  President  of 
the  Church,  who  was  principally  responsible  for  the 
Church's  breach  of  public  faith.  Through  the  col- 
umns of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune  he  exposed  the  treason- 
able return  to  the  practice  of  polygamy  which  Joseph 
F.  Smith  had  secretly  authorized  and  encouraged. 
He  opposed  the  election  of  Apostle  Reed  Smoot  to 
the  United  States  Senate,  as  a  violation  of  the  state- 
hood pledges.  He  criticized  the  financial  absolutism 
of  the  Mormon  Prophet,  which  Smith  was  establishing 
in  partnership  with  "the  Plunderbund."  He  was 
finally  excommunicated  and  ostracized,  by  his  father's 
successors  in  power,  for  championing  the  political  and 
social  liberties  of  the  Mormon  people  whom  he  had 
helped  to  save  from  destruction  and  whose  statehood 
sovereignty  he  had  so  largely  obtained. 

When  the  partnership  of  the  Church  and  "the 
Interests"  prevented  the  expulsion  of  Apostle  Smoot 
from  the  Senate,  Senator  Cannon  withdrew  from 
Utah,  convinced  that  nothing  could  be  done  for  the 
Mormons  so  long  as  the  national  administration 
sustained  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mormon  kingdom 
as  a  co-ordinate  power  in  this  Republic.  For  the 
last  few  years  he  has  been  a  newspaper  editor  in 
Denver,  Colorado — on  the  Denver  Times  and  the 
Rocky  Mountain  News — helping  the  reform  movement 
in  Colorado  against  the  corporation  control  of  that 
state,  and  waiting^ for  the  opportunity  to  renew  his 
long  fight  for  the  Mormon  people. 

In  the  following  narrative  he  returns  to  that  fight. 
In  fulfilment  of  a  promise  made  before  he  left  Utah — 
and  seeing  now,  in  the  new  "insurgency,"  the  hope 
of  freeing  Utah  from  slavery  to  "the  System" — he 
here  addresses  himself  to  the  task  of  exposing  the 

14 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

treasons  and  tyrannies  of  the  Mormon  Prophet  and 
the  consequent  miseries  among  his  people. 

In  the  course  of  his  exposition,  he  gives  a  most 
remarkable  picture  of  the  Mormon  people,  patient, 
meek,  and  virtuous,  "as  gentle  as  the  Quakers,  as 
staunch  as  the  Jews."  He  introduces  the  world  for 
the  first  time  to  the  conclaves  of  the  Mormon  eccle- 
siasts,  explains  the  simplicity  of  some  of  them,  the 
bitterness  of  others,  the  sincerity  of  almost  all — 
illuminating  the  dark  places  of  Church  control  with 
the  understanding  of  a  sympathetic  experience,  and 
bringing  out  the  virtues  of  the  Mormon  system  as 
impartially  as  he  exposes  its  faults.  He  traces  the 
degradation  of  its  communism,  step  by  step  and  inci- 
dent by  incident,  from  its  success  as  a  sort  of  religious 
socialism  administered  for  the  common  good  to  its 
present  failure  as  a  hierarchical  capitalism  governed 
for  the  benefit  of  its  modern  "Prophet  of  Mammon" 
at  the  expense  of  the  liberty,  the  happiness,  and  even 
the  prosperity,  of  its  victims. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Mormon 
Church,  there  has  arrived  a  man  who  has  the  knowl- 
edge and  the  inclination  to  explain  it. 

He  does  this  fearlessly,  as  a  duty,  and  without  any 
apologies,  as  a  public  right.  "He  is  not,  and  never 
has  been  an  official  member  of  the  Church,  in  any 
sense  or  form,"  Joseph  F.  Smith,  as  President  of  the 
Church,  testified  concerning  him,  at  Washington  in 
1904;  and  though  this  statement  is  one'of  the  inspired 
Prophet's  characteristic  perversions  of  the  truth,  it 
covers  the  fact  that  Senator  Cannon  has  always 
opposed  the  official  tyrannies  of  the  hierarchs.  The 
present  Mormon  leaders  accepted  his  aid  in  freeing 
Utah,  well  aware  of  his  independence.  They  profited 
by  his  success  with  a  more  or  less  doubtful  gratitude. 
They  betrayed  him  promptly — as  they  betrayed  the 
nation  and  their  own  followers — as  soon  as  they  found 
themselves  in  a  position  safely  to  betray.  In  this 

15 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

book  he  merely  continues  an  independence  which 
he  has  always  maintained,  and  replies  to  secret  and 
personal  treason  with  a  public  criticism,  to  which  he 
has  never  hesitated  to  resort. 

He  begins  his  story  with  the  year  1888,  and  devotes 
the  first  chapters  to  a  depiction  of  the  miseries  of  the 
Mormon  people  in  the  unhappy  days  of  persecution. 
He  continues  with  the  private  details  of  the  confi- 
dential negotiations  in  Washington  and  the  secret 
conferences  in  Salt  Lake  City  by  which  the  Mormons 
were  saved.  He  gives  the  truth  about  the  political 
intrigues  that  accompanied  the  grant  of  Utah's  state- 
hood, and  he  relates,  pledge  by  pledge,  the  covenants 
then  given  by  the  Mormon  leaders  to  the  nation  and 
since  treasonably  violated  and  repudiated  by  them. 
He  explains  the  progress  of  this  repudiation  with  an 
intimate  "inside"  knowledge  of  facts  which  the  Mor- 
mon leaders  now  deny.  And  he  exposes  the  horror 
of  conditions  in  Utah  today  as  no  other  man  in 
America  could  expose  them — for  his  life  has  been  spent 
in  combating  the  influences  of  which  these  conditions 
are  the  result;  and  he  understands  the  present  situa- 
tion as  a  doctor  understands  the  last  stages  of  a 
disease  which  he  has  been  for  years  vainly  endeavoring 
to  check. 

But  aside  from  all  this — aside  from  his  exposure  of 
the  Mormon  despotism,  his  study  of  the  degradation 
of  a  modern  community,  or  his  secret  history  of  the 
Church's  dark  policies  in  "sacred  places" — he  relates 
a  story  that  is  full  of  the  most  astonishing  curiosities 
of  human  character  and  of  dramatic  situations  that 
are  almost  mediaeval  in  their  religious  aspects.  He 
goes  from  interviews  with  Cleveland  or  Elaine  to 
discuss  American  politics  with  men  who  believe  them- 
selves in  direct  communication  with  God — who  talk 
and  act  like  the  patriarchs  of  the  Old  Testament — 
who  accept  their  own  thoughts  as  the  inspiration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  deliver  their  personal  decisions, 

16 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

reverently,  as  the  Will  of  the  Lord.  He  shows  men 
and  women  ready  to  suffer  any  martyrdom  in  defence 
of  a  doctrine  of  polygamy  that  is  a  continual  unhappi- 
ness  and  cross  upon  them.  He  depicts  the  social 
life  of  the  most  peculiar  sect  that  has  ever  lived  in  a 
Western  civilization.  He  writes — unconsciously, 
and  for  the  first  time  that  it  has  ever  been  written — 
the  naive,  colossal  drama  of  modern  Mormonism. 

H.  J.  O'H. 


17 


FOREWORD 

On  the  fourth  day  of  January,  1896,  the 
territory  of  Utah  was  admitted  to  statehood, 
and  the  proscribed  among  its  people  were  freed 
to  the  liberties  of  American  citizenship,  upon 
the  solemn  covenant  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Mormon  Church  that  they  and  their  followers 
would  live,  thereafter,  according  to  the  laws 
and  institutions  of  the  nation  of  which  they 
were  allowed  to  become  a  part.  And  that 
gracious  settlement  of  upwards  of  forty  years 
of  conflict  was  negotiated  through  responsible 
mediators,  was  endorsed  by  the  good  faith 
of  the  non-Mormons  of  Utah,  and  was  sealed 
by  a  treaty  convention  in  which  the  high 
contracting  parties  were  the  American  Repub- 
lic and  the  "  Kingdom  of  God  on  Earth." 

I  propose,  in  this  narrative,  to  show  that 
the  leaders  of  the  Mormon  Church  have 
broken  their  covenant  to  the  nation;  that 
they  have  abused  the  confidence  of  the  Gen- 
tiles of  Utah  and  betrayed  the  trust  of  the 
people  under  their  power,  by  using  that 
power  to  prevent  the  state  of  Utah  from  be- 
coming what  it  had  engaged  to  become.  I 
propose  to  show  that  the  people  of  Utah, 
upraised  to  freedom  by  the  magnanimity  of 
the  nation,  are  being  made  to  appear  traitor- 
ous to  the  generosity  that  saved  them;  that 

19 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  Mormons  of  Utah  are  being  falsely  misled 
into  the  peculiar  dangers  from  which  they 
thought  they  had  forever  escaped;  that  the 
unity,  the  solidarity,  the  loyalty  of  these 
fervent  people  is  being  turned  as  a  weapon 
of  offence  against  the  whole  country,  for  the 
greater  profit  of  the  leaders  and  the  aggran- 
dizement of  their  power.  I  undertake,  in 
fact,  in  this  narrative,  to  expose  and  to  demon- 
strate what  I  do  believe  to  be  one  of  the  most 
direful  conspiracies  of  treachery  in  the  history 
of  the  United  States. 

Not  that  I  have  anything  in  my  heart 
against  the  Mormon  people!  Heaven  forbid! 
I  know  them  to  be  great  in  their  virtues, 
wholesome  in  their  relations,  capable  of  an 
heroic  fortitude,  living  by  the  tenderest  senti- 
ments of  fraternity,  as  gentle  as  the  Quakers, 
as  staunch  as  the  Jews.  I  think  of  them  as 
a  man  among  strangers  thinks  of  the  dearness 
of  his  home.  I  am  bound  to  them  in  affec- 
tion by  all  the  ties  of  life.  The  smiles  of 
neighborliness,  the  greetings  of  friends,  all 
the  familiar  devotion  of  brothers  and  sisters, 
the  love  of  the  parents  who  held  me  in  their 
arms — by  these  I  know  them  as  my  own 
people,  and  by  these  I  love  them  as  a  good 
people,  as  a  strong  people,  as  a  people  worthy 
to  be  strong  and  fit  to  be  loved. 

But  it  is  even  through  their  virtue  and  by 
their  very  strength  that  they  are  being  be- 
trayed. A  human  devotion — the  like  of 

20 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

which  has  rarely  lived  among  the  citizens  of 
any  modern  state — is  being  directed  as  an 
instrument  of  subjugation  against  others  and 
held    as    a   means    of    oppression   upon   the 
Mormons  themselves.     Noble  when  they  were 
weak,  they  are  being  led  to  ignoble  purpose 
now  that  they  have  become  strong.     Praying 
for  justice  when  they  had  no  power,  now  that 
they  have  gained  power  it  is  being  abused 
to  ends  of  injustice.     Their  leaders,  reaching 
for    the    fleshpots    for    which    these    simple- 
hearted   devotees   have   never   sighed,    have 
allied    themselves   with    all    the    predaceous 
"interests"  of  the  country  and  now  use  the 
superhuman   power    of    a   religious   tyranny 
to  increase  the  dividends  of  a  national  plunder. 
In  the  long  years  of  misery  when  the  Mor- 
mons of  Utah  were  proscribed  and  hunted, 
because  they  refused  to  abandon  what  was 
to  them,   at  that-time,   a  divine  revelation 
and  a  confirmed  article  of  faith,  I  sat  many 
times  in  the  gallery  of  the  Senate  in  Washing- 
ton,  and  heard  discussed  new  measures  of 
destruction    against   these    victims    of   their 
own  fidelity,   and  felt  the  dome  above  me 
impending  like  a  brazen  weight  of  national 
resentment   upon   all   our   heads.     When,    a 
few  years  later,  I  stood  before  the  President's 
desk  in  the  Senate  chamber,  to  take  my  oath 
of  office  as  the  representative  of  the  freed 
people  of  Utah  in  the  councils  of  the  nation, 
I  raised  my  eyes  to  my  old  seat  of  terror  in 

21 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  gallery,  and  pledged  myself,  in  that 
remembrance,  never  to  vote  nor  speak  for 
anything  but  the  largest  measure  of  justice 
that  my  soul  was  big  enough  to  comprehend. 
By  such  engagement  I  write  now,  bound  in  a 
double  debt  of  obligation  to  the  nation  whose 
magnanimity  then  saved  us  and  to  the  people 
whom  I  humbly  helped  to  save. 

FRANK  J.  CANNON. 


22 


Under  the  Prophet  in  Utah 


CHAPTER  I 

IN  THE  DAYS  OF  THE  RAID 

About  ten  o'clock  one  night  in  the  spring 
of  1888,  I  set  out  secretly,  from  Salt  Lake 
City,  on  a  nine-mile  drive  to  Bountiful,  to 
meet  my  father,  who  was  concealed  "on  the 
underground,"  among  friends;  and  that 
night  drive,  with  its  haste  and  its  apprehen- 
sion, was  so  of  a  piece  with  the  times,  that 
I  can  hardly  separate  it  from  them  in  my 
memory.  We  were  all  being  carried  along 
in  an  uncontrollable  sweep  of  tragic  events. 
In  a  sort  of  blindness,  like  the  night,  unable 
to  see  the  nearest  fork  of  the  road  ahead  of 
us,  we  were  being  driven  to  a  future  that  held 
we  knew  not  what. 

I  was  with  my  brother  Abraham  (soon  to 
become  an  apostle  of  the  Mormon  Church), 
who  had  himself  been  in  prison  and  was  still 
in  danger  of  arrest.  And  there  is  something 
typical  of  those  days  in  the  recollection  I  have 

23 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  him  in  the  carriage:  silent,  self-contained, 
and — when  he  talked — discussing  trivialities 
in  the  most  calm  way  in  the  world.  The  whole 
district  was  picketed  with  deputy  marshals; 
we  did  not  know  that  we  were  not  being 
followed;  we  had  always  the  sense  of  evading 
patrols  in  an  enemy's  country.  But  this 
feeling  was  so  old  with  us  that  it  had  become 
a  thing  of  no  regard. 

There  was  something  even  more  typical 
in  the  personality  of  our  driver — a  giant  of  a 
man  named  Charles  Wilcken — a  veteran  of 
the  German  army  who  had  been  decorated 
with  the  Iron  Cross  for  bravery  on  the  field  of 
battle.  He  had  come  to  Utah  with  General 
Johnston's  forces  in  1858,  and  had  left  the 
military  service  to  attach  himself  to  Brigham 
Young.  After  Young's  death,  my  father 
had  succeeded  to  the  first  place  in  his  affec- 
tions. He  was  an  elder  of  the  Church;  he 
had  been  an  aristocrat  in  his  own  country; 
but  he  forgot  his  e very  t  personal  interest  in 
his  loyalty  to  his  leaders,  and  he  stood  at  all 
times  ready  to  defend  them  with  his  life — as 
a  hundred  thousand  others  did! — for,  though 
the  Mormons  did  not  resist  the  processes  of 
law  for  themselves,  except  by  evasion,  they 
were  prepared  to  protect  their  leaders,  if 
necessary,  by  force  of  arms. 

With  Wilcken  holding  the  reins  on  a  pair 
of  fast  horses  at  full  speed,  we  whirled  past 
the  old  adobe  wall  (which  the  Mormons  had 

24 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

built  to  defend  their  city  from  the  Indians) 
and  came  out  into  the  purple  night  of  Utah, 
with  its  frosty  starlight  and  its  black  hills — 
a  desert  night,  a  mountain  night,  a  night  so 
vast  in  its  height  of  space  and  breadth  of 
distance  that  it  seemed  natural  it  should 
inspire  the  people  that  breathed  it  with 
freedom's  ideals  of  freedom  and  all  the  sub- 
limities of  an  eternal  faith.  And  those 
people — ! 

A  more  despairing  situation  than  theirs, 
at  that  hour,  has  never  been  faced  by  an 
American  community.  Practically  every 
Mormon  man  of  any  distinction  was  in  prison, 
or  had  just  served  his  term,  or  had  escaped 
into  exile.  Hundreds  of  Mormon  women 
had  left  their  homes  and  their  children  to 
flee  from  the  officers  of  law;  many  had  been 
behind  prison  bars  for  refusing  to  answer  the 
questions  put  to  them  in  court;  more  were 
concealed,  like  outlaws,  in  the  houses  of 
friends.  Husbands  and  wives,  separated  by 
the  necessities  of  flight,  had  died  apart, 
miserably.  Old  men  were  coming  out  of 
prison,  broken  in  health.  A  young  plural 
wife  whom  I  knew — a  mere  girl,  of  good 
breeding,  of  gentle  life — seeking  refuge  in  the 
mountains  to  save  her  husband  from  a  charge 
of  "unlawful  cohabitation,"  had  had  her 
infant  die  in  her  arms  on  the  road;  and  she 
had  been  compelled  to  bury  the  child,  wrapped 
in  her  shawl,  under  a  rock,  in  a  grave  that 

25 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

she  scratched  in  the  soil  with  a  stick.  In 
our  day!  In  a  civilized  state! 

By  Act  of  Congress,  all  the  church|property 
in  excess  of  $50,000  had  been  seized  by  the 
United  States  marshal,  and  the  community 
faced  the  total  loss  of  its  common  fund. 
Because  of  some  evasions  that  had  been 
attempted  by  the  Church  authorities — and 
the  suspicion  of  more  such — the  marshal  had 
taken  everything  that  he  could  in  any  way 
assume  to  belong  to  the  Church.  Among 
the  Mormons,  there  was  an  unconquerable 
spirit  of  sanctified  lawlessness,  and,  among 
the  non-Mormons,  an  equally  indomitable 
determination  to  vindicate  the  law.  Both 
were,  for  the  most  part,  sincere.  Both  were 
resolute.  And  both  were  standing  in  fear 
of  a  fatal  conflict,  which  any  act  of  violence 
might  begin. 

Moreover,  the  Mormons  were  being  slowly 
but  surely  deprived  of  all  civil  rights.  All 
pplygamists  had  been  disfranchised  by  the 
bill"  of  1882,  and  all  the  women  of  Utah  by 
the  bill  of  1887.  The  Governor  of  the  terri- 
tory was  appointed  by  Federal  authority, 
so  was  the  marshal,  so  were  the  judges,  so 
were  the  United  States  Commissioners  who 
had  co-ordinate  jurisdiction  with  magistrates 
and  justices  of  the  peace,  so  were  the  Election 
Commissioners.  But  the  Mormons  still  con- 
trolled the  legislature,  and  though  the  Gov- 
ernor could  veto  all  legislation  he  could 

26 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

initiate  none.  For  this  reason  it  had  been 
frequently  proposed  that  the  President  should 
appoint  a  Legislative  Council  to  take  the 
place  of  the  elected  legislature ;  and  bills  were 
being  talked  of  in  Congress  to  effect  a  com- 
plete disfranchisement  of  the  whole  body  of 
the  Mormon  people  by  means  of  a  test  oath. 

I  did  not  then  believe,  and  I  do  not  now, 
that  the  practice  of  polygamy  was  a  thing 
which  the  American  nation  could  condone. 
But  I  knew  that  our  people  believed  in  it  as 
a  practice  ordained,  by  a  revelation  from  God, 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  It  was  to 
them  an  article  of  faith  as  sacred  as  any  for 
which  the  martyrs  of  any  religion  ever  died; 
and  it  seemed  that  the  nation,  in  its  resolve 
to  vindicate  the  supremacy  of  civil  govern- 
ment, was  determined  to  put  them  to  the 
point  of  martyrdom. 

It  was  with  this  prospect  before^us  that 
we  drove,  that  night,  up  the  Salt  Lake  valley, 
across  a  corner  of  the  desert,  to  the  little 
town  of  Bountiful;  and  as  soon  as  we  arrived 
among  the  houses  of  the  settlement,  a  man 
stepped  out  into  the  road,  from  the  shadows, 
and  stopped  us.  Wilcken  spoke  to  him. 
He  recognized  us,  and  let  us  pass.  As  we 
turned  into  the  farm  where  my  father  was 
concealed,  I  saw  men  lurking  here  and  there, 
on  guard,  about  the  grounds.  The  house 
was  an  old-fashioned  adobe  farm-house;  the 
windows  were  all  dark;  we  entered  through 

27 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  kitchen.  And  I  entered,  let  me  say, 
with  the  sense  that  I  was  about  to  come  before 
one  of  the  most  able  among  men. 

To  those  who  knew  George  Q.  Cannon  I 
do  not  need  to  justify  that  feeling.  He  was 
the  man  in  the  hands  of  whose  sagacity  the 
fate  of  the  Mormons  at  that  moment  lay. 
He  was  the  First  Councillor  of  the  Church, 
and  had  been  so  for  years.  For  ten  years 
in  Congress,  he  had  fought  and  defeated  the 
proscriptive  legislation  that  had  been  at- 
tempted against  his  people;  and  Senator 
Hoar  had  said  of  him,  "  No  man  in  Congress 
ever  served  a  territory  more  ably."  He  had 
been  the  intimate  friend  of  Randall  and  Elaine. 
As  a  missionary  in  England  he  had  impressed 
Dickens,  who  wrote  of  him  in  "An  Uncom- 
mercial Traveller."  The  Hon.  James  Bryce 
had  said  of  him:  "He  was  one  of  the  ablest 
Americans  I  ever  met." 

An  Englishman,  well-educated,  a  linguist, 
an  impressive  orator,  a  persuasive  writer, 
he  had  lived  a  life  that  was  one  long  incredible 
adventure  of  romance  and  almost  miraculous 
achievement.  As  a  youth  he  had  been  sent 
by  the  Mormon  leaders  to  California  to  wash 
out  gold  for  the  struggling  community;  and 
he  had  sent  back  to  Utah  all  the  proceeds  of 
his  labor,  living  himself  upon  the  crudest 
necessaries  of  life.  As  a  young  man  he  had 
gone  as  a  Mormon  missionary  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands,  and  finding  himself  unable  to  convert 

28 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  whites  he  had  gone  among  the  natives — 
starving,  a  ragged  wanderer — and  by  simple 
force  of  personality  he  had  made  himself  a 
power  among  them;  so  that  in  later  years 
Napella,  the  famous  native  leader,  journeyed 
to  Utah  to  consult  with  him  upon  the  affairs  of 
that  distressed  state,  and  Queen  Liluokalani, 
deposed  and  in  exile,  appealed  to  him  for 
advice.  He  had  edited  and  published  a 
Mormon  newspaper  in  San  Francisco;  and 
he  had  long  successfully  directed  the  affairs 
of  the  publishing  house  in  Salt  Lake  City 
which  he  owned.  He  was  a  railroad  builder, 
a  banker,  a  developer  of  mines,  a  financier 
of  a  score  of  interests.  He  combined  the 
activities  of  a  statesman,  a  missionary,  and 
a  man  of  business,  and  seemed  equally  suc- 
cessful in  all. 

But  none  of  these  things — nor  all  of  them — 
contained  the  total  of  the  man  himself.  He 
was  greater  than  his  work.  He  achieved  by 
the  force  of  a  personality  that  was  more 
impressive  than  its  achievements.  If  he 
had  been  royalty,  he  could  not  have  been 
surrounded  with  a  greater  deference  than  he 
commanded  among  our  people.  A  feeling 
of  responsibility  for  those  dependent  on  him, 
such  as  a  king  might  feel,  added  to  a  sense  of 
divine  guidance  that  gave  him  the  dignity 
of  inspiration,  had  made  him  majestical  in 
his  simple  presence;  and  even  among  those 
who  laughed  at  divine  inspiration  and  scorned 

29 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Mormonism  as  the  Uitlander  scorned  the 
faith  of  the  Boer,  his  sagacity  and  his  diplo- 
macy and  his  power  to  read  and  handle  men 
made  him  as  fearfully  admired  as  any  Oom 
Paul  in  the  Transvaal. 

When  I  entered  the  low-ceilinged,  lamp- 
lit  room  in  which  he  sat,  he  rose  to  meet  me, 
and  all  rose  with  him,  like  a  court.  He 
embraced  me  without  effusion,  looking  at 
me  silently  with  his  wise  blue  eyes  that 
always  seemed  to  read  in  my  face — and  to 
check  up  in  his  valuation  of  me — whatever 
I  had  become  in  my  absence  from  his  regard. 

He  had  a  countenance  that  at  no  time  bore 
any  of  the  marks  of  the  passions  of  men; 
and  it  showed,  now,  no  shadow  of  the  tribu- 
lations of  that  troubled  day.  His  forehead 
was  unworried.  His  eyes  betrayed  none 
of  the  anxieties  with  which  his  mind  must 
have  been  busied.  His  expression  was  one 
of  resolute  stern  contentment  with  all  things — 
carrying  the  composure  of  spirit  which  he 
wished  his  people  to  have.  If  I  had  been 
agitated  by  the  urgency  of  his  summons  to 
me,  and  he  had  wished  to  allay  my  anxiety 
at  once,  the  sight  of  his  face,  as  he  looked 
at  me,  would  have  been  reassurance  enough. 

At  a  characteristic  motion  of  the  hand 
from  him,  the  others  left  us.  We  sat  down 
in  the  "horse-hair"  chairs  of  a  well-to-do 
farmer's  parlor — furnished  in  black  walnut, 
with  the  usual  organ  against  one  wall,  and 

30 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  usual  marble-topped  bureau  against  the 
other.  I  remember  the  ''store"  carpet,  the 
mortuary  hair-wreaths  on  the  walls,  the 
walnut-framed  lithographs  of  the  Church 
authorities  and  of  the  angel  Moroni  with 
"the  gold  plates;"  and  none  of  these  seem 
ludicrous  to  me  to  remember.  They  express, 
to  me,  in  the  recollection,  some  of  the  homely 
and  devout  simplicity  of  the  people  whose 
community  life  this  man  was  to  save. 

He  talked  a  few  minutes,  affectionately, 
about  family  matters,  and  then — straighten- 
ing his  shoulders  to  the  burden  of  more 
gravity — he  said:  "I  have  sent  for  you,  my 
son,  to  see  if  you  cannot  find  some  way  to 
help  us  in  our  difficulties.  I  have  made  it 
a  matter  of  prayer,  and  I  have  been  led  to 
urge  you  to  activity.  You  have  never  per- 
formed a  Mission  for  the  Church,  and  I  have 
sometimes  wondered  if  you  cared  anything 
about  your  religion.  You  have  never  obeyed 
the  celestial  covenant,  and  you  have  kept 
yourself  aloof  from  the  duties  of  the  priest- 
hood, but  it  may  have  been  a  providential 
overruling.  I  have  talked  with  some  of  the 
brethren,  and  we  feel  that  if  relief  does  not 
soon  appear,  our  community  will  be  scattered 
and  the  great  work  crushed.  The  Lord  can 
rescue  us,  but  we  must  put  forth  our  own 
efforts.  Can  you  see  any  light  ? " 

I  replied  that  I  had  already  been  in  Wash- 
ington twice,  on  my  own  initiative,  conferring 

31 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

with  some  of  his  Congressional  friends.  "  I 
am  still,"  I  said,  "of  the  opinion  I  expressed 
to  you  and  President  Taylor  four  years  ago. 
Plural  marriage  must  be  abandoned  or  our 
friends  in  Washington  will  not  defend  us." 

Four  years  before,  when  I  had  offered  that 
opinion,  President  Taylor  had  cried  out: 
"No!  Plural  marriage  is  the  will  of  God! 
It's  apostasy  to  question  it!"  And  I  paused 
now  with  the  expectation  that  my  father 
would  say  something  of  this  sort.  But,  as 
I  was  afterwards  to  observe,  it  was  part  of 
his  diplomacy,  in  conference,  to  pass  the 
obvious  opportunity  of  replying,  and  to 
remain  silent  when  he  was  expected  to  speak, 
so  that  he  might  not  be  in  the  position  of 
following  the  lead  of  his  opponent's  argument, 
but  rather,  by  waiting  his  own  time,  be  able 
to  direct  the  conversation  to  his  own  purposes. 
He  listened  to  me,  silently,  his  eyes  fixed  on 
my  face. 

"Senator  Vest  of  Missouri,"  I  went  on, 
"has  always  been  a  strong  opponent  of  what 
he  considered  unconstitutional  legislation 
against  us,  but  he  tells  me  he'll  no  longer 
oppose  proscription  if  we  ?  continue  in  an 
attitude  of  defiance.  He  says  you're  putting 
yourselves  beyond  assistance,  by  organized 
rebellion  against  the  administration  of  the 
statutes.  '  And  I  continued  with  instances 
of  others  among  his  friends  who  had  spoken 
to  the  same  purpose. 

32 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

When  I  had  done,  he  took  what  I  had  said 
with  a  gesture  that  at  once  accepted  and  for 
the  moment  dismissed  it;  and  he  proceeded 
to  a  larger  consideration  of  the  situation,  in 
words  which  I  cannot  pretend  to  recall,  but 
to  an  effect  which  I  wish  to  outline — because 
it  not  only  accounts  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Mormon  people  from  all  their  dangers, 
but  contains  a  reason  why  the  world  might 
have  wished  to  see  them  preserved. 

The  Mormons  at  this  time  had  never  written 
a  line  on  social  reform — except  as  the  so-called 
11  revelations  "  established  a  new  social  order — 
but  they  had  practised  whole  volumes.  Their 
community  was  founded  on  the  three  prin- 
ciples of  co-operation,  contribution,  and 
arbitration.  By  co-operation  of  effort  they 
had  realized  that  dream  of  the  Socialists, 
"equality  of  opportunity" —not  equality  of 
individual  capacity,  which  the  accidents  of 
nature  prevent,  but  an  equal  opportunity 
for  each  individual  to  develop  himself  to  the 
last  reach  of  his  power.  By  contribution — 
by  requiring  each  man  to  give  one-tenth  of 
his  income  to  a  common  fund — they  had 
attained  the  desired  end  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, the  abolition  of  poverty,  and  had  ad- 
justed the  straps  of  the  community  burden 
to  the  strength  of  the  individual  to  bear  it. 
By  arbitration,  they  had  effected  the  settle- 
ment of  every  dispute  of  every  kind  without 
litigation;  for  their  High  Councils  decided 

33 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

all  sorts  of  personal  or  neighborhood  disputes 
without  expense  of  money  to  the  disputants. 
The  "storehouse  of  the  Lord"  had  been  kept 
open  to  fill  every  need  of  the  poor  among 
"  God's  people,"  and  opportunities  for  self- 
help  had  been  created  out  of  the  common 
fund,  so  that  neither  unwilling  idleness  nor 
privation  might  mar  the  growth  of  the  com- 
munity or  the  progress  of  the  individual. 

But  Joseph  Smith  had  gone  further.  Daring 
to  believe  himself  the  earthly  representative 
of  Omnipotence,  whose  duty  it  was  to  see 
that  all  had  the  rights  to  which  he  thought 
them  entitled,  and  assuming  that  a  woman's 
chief  right  was  that  of  wifehood  and  maternity, 
he  had  instituted  the  practice  of  plural  mar- 
riage, as  a  "  Prophet  of  God,"  on  the  authority 
of  a  direct  revelation  from  the  Almighty.  It 
was  upon  this  rock  that  the  whole  enterprise, 
the  whole  experiment  in  religious  commun- 
ism, now  threatened  to  split.  Not  that 
polygamy  was  so  large  an  incident  in  the  life 
of  the  community — for  only  a  small  propor- 
tion of  the  Mormons  were  living  in  plural 
marriage.  And  not  that  this  practice  was 
the  cardinal  sin  of  Mormonism — for  among 
intelligent  men,  then  as  now,  the  great  objec- 
tion to  the  Church  was  its  assumption  of 
a  divine  authority  to  hold  the  "temporal 
power,"  to  dictate  in  politics,  to  command 
action  and  to  acquit  of  responsibility.  But 
polygamy  was  the  offence  against  civilization 

34 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

which  the  opponents  of  Mormonism  could 
always  cite  in  order  to  direct  against  the 
Church  the  concentrated  antagonism  of  the 
governments  of  the  Western  world.  And 
my  father,  in  authorizing  me  to  proceed  to 
Washington  as  a  sort  of  ambassador  of  the 
Church,  evidently  wished  to  impress  upon 
me  the  larger  importance  of  the  value  of  the 
social  experiment  which  the  Mormons  had, 
to  this  time,  so  successfully  advanced. 

"  It  would  be  a  cruel  waste  of  human 
effort,"  he  said,  "if,  after  having  attained 
comfort  in  these  valleys — established  our 
schools  of  art  and  science — developed  our 
country  and  founded  our  industries — we 
should  now  be  destroyed  as  a  community, 
and  the  value  of  our  experience  lost  to  the 
world.  We  have  a  right  to  survive.  We 
have  a  duty  to  survive.  It  would  be  to 
the  profit  of  the  nation  that  we  should 
survive." 

But  in  order  to  survive,  it  was  necessary 
to  obtain  some  immediate  mitigation  of  the 
enforcement  of  the  laws  against  us.  The 
manner  in  which  they  were  being  enforced 
was  making  compromise  impossible,  and  the 
men  who  administered  them  stood  in  the 
way  of  getting  a  favorable  hearing  from  the 
powers  of  government  that  alone  could  author- 
ize a  compromise.  It  was  necessary  to  break 
this  circle ;  and  my  father  went  over  the  names 
of  the  men  in  Washington  who  might  help  us. 

35 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  could  marvel  at  his  understanding  of  these 
men  and  their  motives,  but  we  came  to  no 
plan  of  action  until  I  spoke  of  what  had  been 
with  me  a  sort  of  forlorn  hope  that  I  might 
appeal  to  President  Cleveland  himself. 

My  father  said  thoughfully:  "What  influ- 
ence could  you,  a  Republican,  have  with 
him?  It's  true  that  your  youth  may  make 
an  appeal — and  the  fact  that  you're  pleading 
for  your  relatives,  while  not  yourself  a  polyga- 
mist.  But  he  wrould  immediately  ask  us  to 
abandon  plural  marriage,  and  that  is  estab- 
lished by  a  revelation  from  God  which  we 
cannot  disregard.  Even  if  the  Prophet 
directed  us,  as  a  revelation  from  God,  to 
abandon  polygamy,  still  the  nation  would 
have  further  cause  for  quarrel  because  of  the 
Church's  temporal  rule.  No.  I  can  make 
no  promise.  I  can  authorize  no  pledge.  It 
must  be  for  the  Prophet  of  God  to  say  what 
is  the  will  of  the  Lord.  You  must  see  Presi- 
dent Woodruff,  and  after  he  has  asked  for 
the  will  of  the  Lord  I  shall  be  content  with 
his  instruction." 

Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  say — though  I  did 
then  believe  it — that  the  First  Councillor 
of  the  Mormon  Church  was  prepared  to  have 
the  doctrine  of  plural  marriage  abandoned 
in  order  to  have  the  people  saved.  It  is 
impossible  to  predicate  the  thoughts  of  a 
man  so  diplomatic,  so  astute,  and  at  the  same 
time  so  deeply  religious  and  so  credulous  of 

36 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

all  the  miracles  of  faith.  He  did  believe  in 
Divine  guidance.  He  was  sincere  in  his  sub- 
mission to  the  " revelations"  of  the  Prophet. 
But,  in  the  complexity  of  the  mind  of  man, 
even  such  a  faith  may  be  complicated  with 
the  strategies  of  foresight,  and  the  priest 
who  bows  devoutly  to  the  oracle  may  yet, 
even  unconsciously,  direct  the  oracle  to  the 
utterance  of  his  desire.  And  if  my  father 
was — as  I  suspected — considering  a  recession 
from  plural  marriage,  he  had  as  justification 
the  basic  "  revelation,"  given  through  "Joseph 
the  Prophet,"  commanding  that  the  people 
should  hold  themselves  in  subjection  to  the 
government  under  which  they  lived,  "until 
He  shall  come  Whose  right  it  is  to  rule." 

We  talked  till  midnight,  in  the  quiet  glow 
of  the  farmer's  lamp-light,  discussing  possi- 
bilities, considering  policies,  weighing  men; 
and  then  we  parted — he  to  betake  himself 
to  whatever  secure  place  of  hiding  he  had 
found,  and  I  to  return  to  Ogden  where  I  was 
then  editing  a  newspaper.  I  was  only  twenty- 
nine  years  old,  and  the  responsibility  of  the 
undertaking  that  had  been  entrusted  to  me 
weighed  on  my  mind.  I  waited  for  a  sum- 
mons to  confer  with  President  Woodruff, 
but  none  came.  Instead,  my  brother  brought 
me  word  from  the  President  that  I  must  be 
"guided  by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord;"  and, 
finally,  my  father  sent  me  orders  to  consult 
the  Second  Councillor,  Joseph  F.  Smith. 

37 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Joseph  F.  Smith!  Since  the  death  of  the 
founder  of  the  Mormon  Church,  there  have 
been  three  men  pre-eminent  in  its  history: 
Brigham  Young,  who  led  the  people  across 
the  desert  into  the  Salt  Lake  Valley  and 
established  them  in  prosperity  there;  George 
Q.  Cannon,  who  directed  their  policies  and 
secured  their  national  rights;  and  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  who  today  rules  over  that  prosperity 
and  markets  that  political  right,  like  a  Sultan. 
Of  all  these,  Smith  is,  to  the  nation  now,  of 
most  importance — and  sinisterly  so. 

No  Mormon  in  those  years,  I  think,  had 
more  hate  than  Smith  for  the  United  States 
government;  and  surely  none  had  better 
reasons  to  give  himself  for  hate.  He  had  the 
bitter  recollection  of  the  assassination  of  his 
father  and  his  uncle  in  the  jail  of  Carthage, 
Illinois;  he  could  remember  the  journey  that 
he  had  made  with  his  widowed  mother  across 
the  Mississippi,  across  Iowa,  across  the  Mis- 
souri, and  across  the  unknown  and  desert 
West,  in  ox  teams,  half  starved,  unarmed, 
persecuted  by  civilization  and  at  the  mercy 
of  savages;  he  could  remember  all  the  toils 
and  hardships  of  pioneer  days  "  in  the  Valley;" 
he  had  seen  the  army  of  '58  arrive  to  complete, 
as  he  believed,  the  final  destruction  of  our 
people;  he  had  suffered  from"  all  the  pre- 
scriptive legislation  of  "the  raid,"  been  out- 
lawed, been  in  exile,  been  in  hiding,  hunted 
like  a  thief.  He  had  been  taught,  and  he 

38 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

firmly  believed,  that  the  Smiths  had  been 
divinely  appointed  to  rule,  in  the  name  of 
God,  over  all  mankind.  He  believed  that 
he — ordained  a  ruler  over  this  world  before 
ever  the  world  was — had  been  persecuted  by 
the  hate  and  wickedness  of  men.  He  believed 
it  literally;  he  preached  it  literally;  he  still 
believes  and  still  preaches  it.  I  did  not  then 
sympathize  with  this  point  of  view,  any  more 
than  I  do  now;  but  I  did  sympathize  with 
him  in  the  hardships  that  he  had  already 
endured  and  in  the  trials  that  he  was  still 
enduring — in  common  with  the  rest  of  us. 
The  bond  of  community  persecution  inten- 
sified my  loyalty.  I  felt  for  him  almost  as 
I  felt  for  my  own  father.  I  went  to  him  with 
the  young  man's  trust  in  age  made  wise  by 
suffering. 

I  had  been  directed  to  call  on  him  in  the 
President's  offices,  in  Salt  Lake  City,  where 
he  was  concealed,  for  the  moment,  under 
the  name  of  "Mack" — the  name  that  he 
used  "on  the  underground" — and  I  went 
with  my  brother,  late  at  night,  to  see  him 
there.  The  President's  offices  were  at  that 
time  in  a  little  one-story  plastered  house  that 
had  been  built  by  Brigham  Young  between 
two  of  his  famous  residences,  the  "  Beehive 
House"  and  the  "Lion  House"  (in  which 
some  twelve  or  fourteen  of  his  wives  had 
lived).  The  three  houses  were  within  the 
enclosure  of  a  high  cobblestone  wall  built 

39 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

by  Brigham  Young;  and  at  night  the  great 
gate  of  the  wall  was  shut  and  locked.  We 
hammered  discreetly  on  its  panels  of  mountain 
pine,  until  a  guard  answered  our  knocking, 
recognized  our  voices  and  admitted  us. 

<:He's  in  there,"  he  said,  pointing  to  the 
darkened  windows  of  the  offices — toward 
which  he  led  us. 

He  unlocked  the  front  door — having  evi- 
dently locked  it  when  he  went  to  the  gate — 
and  he  explained  to  a  waiting  attendant: 
"  These  brethren  have  an  appointment.  They 
wish  to  see  Brother  Mack." 

The  attendant  led  us  down  a  dimly-lighted 
hall,  through  the  public  offices  of  the  President 
into  a  rear  room,  a  sort  of  retiring  room,  car- 
peted, furnished  with  bookcases,  chairs,  a 
table.  The  window  blinds  had  all  been  care- 
fully drawn. 

Joseph  F.  Smith  was  waiting  for  us — a  tall, 
lean,  long-bearded  man  of  a  commanding 
figure — standing  as  if  our  arrival  had  stopped 
him  in  some  anxious  pacing  of  the  carpet. 
His  overcoat  and  his  hat  had  been  thrown 
on  a  chair.  He  greeted  us  with  the  air  of 
one  who  is  hurried,  and  sat  down  tentatively; 
and  as  soon  as  wre  came  to  the  question  of  my 
trip  to  Washington,  he  broke  out: 

"  These  scoundrels  here  must  be  removed — 
if  there's  any  way  to  do  it.  They're  trying 
to  repeat  the  persecutions  of  Missouri  and 
Illinois.  They  want  to  despoil  us  of  our 

40 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

heritage — of  our  families.  I'm  sick  of  being 
hunted  like  a  wild  beast.  I've  done  no  harm 
to  them  or  theirs.  Why  can't  they  leave 
us  alone  to  live  our  religion  and  obey  the 
commandments  of  God  and  build  up  Zion?" 
He  had  begun  to  stride  up  and  down  the  floor 
again,  in  a  sort  of  driven  and  angry  helpless- 
ness. "  I  thought  Cleveland  would  stop  this 
damnable  raid  and  make  them  leave  us  in 
peace — but  he's  as  bad  as  the  rest.  Can't 
they  see  that  these  carpet  baggers  are  only 
trying  to  rob  us  ?  Make  them  see  that.  The 
hounds!  Sometimes  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
Lord  is  letting  these  iniquities  go  on  so  that 
the  nation  may  perish  in  its  sins  all  the 
sooner!" 

He  sneered  at  John  W.  Young  who  had 
gone  to  Washington  for  the  Church.  (I  had 
met  Smith  himself  there,  earlier  in  the  year.) 
"I  thought  he'd  accomplish  something,"  he 
said,  "with  his  fashionable  home  and  his — 
He's  using  money  enough!  He's  down  there, 
taking  things  easy,  while  the  rest  of  us  are 
driven  from  pillar  to  post."  He  attacked 
the  Federal  authorities,  Governor  West,  the 
"whole  gang."  He  cried:  "I  love  my  wives 
and  my  children — whom  the  Lord  gave  me.  I 
love  them  more  than  my  life — more  than 
anything  in  the  world — except  my  religion! 
And  here  I  am,  fleeing  from  place  to  place, 
from  the  wrath  of  the  wicked — and  they're 
left  in  sorrow  and  suffering." 

41 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

His  face  was  pallid  with  emotion,  and  his 
voice  came  now  hard  with  exasperation 
against  his  enemies  and  now  husky  with  a 
passionate  affection  for  his  family — a  man 
of  fifty,  gray-bearded,  quivering  in  a  nervous 
transport  of  excitement  that  jerked  him  up 
and  down  the  room,  gesticulating. 

When  he  had  worn  out  his  first  anger  of 
revolt,  I  brought  the  conversation  round  to 
the  question  of  polygamy,  by  asking  him 
about  a  provisional  constitution  for  statehood 
which  the  non-polygamous  Mormons  had 
recently  adopted.  It  contained  a  clause 
making  polygamy  a  misdemeanor.  "  I  would 
have  seen  them  all  damned,"  he  said,  "before 
I  would  have  yielded  it,  but  I'm  willing  to 
try  the  experiment,  if  any  good  can  come." 

He  had,  I  gathered,  no  aversion  to  "deceiv- 
ing the  wicked,"  but  he  was  opposed  to  leading 
his  people  away  from  their  loyalty  to  the 
doctrine  of  plural  marriage,  by  conceding 
anything  that  might  weaken  their  faith  in  it. 
And  yet  this  impression  may  misrepresent 
him.  He  was  too  agitated,  too  exasperated, 
for  any  serious  reflection  on  the  situation. 

My  brother  had  gone — to  keep  some  other 
engagement — and  I  stayed  late,  talking  as 
long  as  Smith  seemed  to  wish  to  talk.  He  rose 
at  last  and  "blessed"  me,  his  hands  on  my 
head,  in  a  return  to  some  larger  trust  in  his 
religious  authority;  and  I  left  him — with 
very  doubtful  and  mixed  emotions.  His 

42 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

natural  violence  and  his  lack  of  discipline 
had  been  matters  of  common  gossip  among 
our  people,  and  I  had  heard  of  them  from 
childhood;  but  I  had  supposed  that  tribula- 
tions would,  by  this  time,  have  matured  him. 
There  was  something  compelling  in  his  un- 
softened  turbulence,  but  nothing  encouraging 
for  me  as  a  messenger  of  conciliation.  I  felt 
that  there  would  be  no  help  come  from  him 
in  my  task,  and  I  dropped  him  from  my 
reckoning. 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  a  plan  that  was 
almost  as  desperate  as  the  conditions  it  sought 
to  cure — a  plan  that  was  in  some  ways  so 
absurd  that  I  felt  like  keeping  it  concealed 
for  fear  of  ridicule — and  I  went  about  my 
preparations  for  departure  in  a  sort  of  hope- 
less hope.  As  the  train  drew  out  from  Ogden, 
I  looked  back  at  the  mountains  from  my  car 
window,  and  saw  again,  in  the  spectacle  of 
their  power,  the  pathos  of  our  people — as  if  it 
were  the  nation  of  my  worship  that  bulked 
there  so  huge  above  the  people  of  my  love— 
and  I,  puny  in  my  little  efforts,  going  out  to 
plot  an  intercession,  to  appeal  for  a  truce! 
It  was  almost  as  if  I  were  the  son  of  a  Con- 
federate leader  journeying  to  Washington, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War,  to  attempt  to 
stand  between  North  and  South  and  hold 
back  their  opposing  armies,  single-handed. 

These  are  the  things  a  man  does  when  he 
is  young. 

43 


CHAPTER  II 

ON  A  MISSION  TO  WASHINGTON 

I  went  discredited,  as  an  envoy,  by  an 
incident  of  personal  conflict  with  the  Federal 
authorities ;  and  I  wish  to  relate  that  incident 
before  I  proceed  any  farther.  I  must  relate 
it  soon,  because  it  came  up  for  explanation 
in  one  of  my  first  interviews  with  President 
Cleveland;  and  I  wish  to  relate  it  now,  be- 
cause it  was  so  typical  of  the  day  and  the 
condition  from  which  we  had  to  save  ourselves. 

In  the  winter  of  1885-6,  the  United  Stales 
Marshals  had  been  pursuing  my  father  from 
place  to  place  with  such  determined  persist- 
ence that  it  was  evident  his  capture  was  only 
a  matter  of  time.  We  believed  that  if  he 
were  arrested  and  tried  before  Chief  Justice 
Zane — with  District  Attorney  Dickson  and 
Assistant  District  Attorney  Varian  prosecut- 
ing— he  would  be  convicted  on  so  many 
counts  that  he  would  be  held  in  prison  indefi- 
nitely— that  he  might,  in  fact,  end  his  days 
there.  There  was  the  rumor  of  a  boast,  to 
this  effect,  made  by  Federal  officers;  and  we 
misunderstood  them  and  their  motives,  in 
those  days,  sufficiently  to  accept  the  unjust 
report  as  well-founded. 

44 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

My  father,  as  First  Councillor  of  the  Church, 
had  proposed  to  President  Taylor  that  every 
man  who  was  living  in  plural  marriage  should 
surrender  himself  voluntarily  to  the  court 
and  plead:  "I  entered  into  this  covenant  of 
celestial  marriage  with  a  personal  conviction 
that  it  was  an  order  revealed  by  our  Father 
in  Heaven  for  the  salvation  of  mankind.  I 
have  kept  my  covenant  in  purity.  I  believed 
that  no  constitutional  law  of  the  country 
could  forbid  this  practice  of  a  religious  faith. 
As  the  laws  of  Congress  conflict  with  my  sense 
of  submission  to  the  will  of  the  Lord,  I  now 
offer  myself,  here,  for  whatever  judgment 
the  courts  of  my  country  may  impose."  He 
believed  that  such  a  course  would  vindicate 
the  sincerity  of  the  men  who  had  engaged  in 
polygamy  and  defied  the  law  in  an  assumption 
of  religious  immunity;  and  he  believed  that 
the  world  would  pause  to  reconsider  its  judg- 
ment upon  us,  if  it  saw  thousands  of  men — 
the  bankers,  the  farmers,  the  merchants,  and 
all  the  religious  leaders  of  a  civilized  com- 
munity— marching  in  a  mass  to  perform 
such  an  act  of  faith. 

But  President  Taylor  was  not  prepared  for 
a  movement  that  would  have  recommended 
itself  better  to  the  daring  genius  of  Brigham 
Young.  Taylor  had  given  himself  into  the 
custody  of  the  officers  of  the  law  once — in 
Carthage,  Illinois — with  Joseph  Smith  and 
his  brother,  Hyrum  Smith;  and  Taylor  had 

45 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

been  wounded  by  the  mob  that  broke  into 
the  jail  and  shot  the  Smiths  to  death.  This, 
perhaps,  had  cured  him  of  any  faith  in  the 
protecting  power  of  innocency.  He  decided 
against  voluntary  surrender;  and  now  that 
my  father's  liberty  was  so  seriously  threatened, 
he  ordered  him  to  go  either  to  Mexico  or  to 
the  Sandwich  Islands — his  old  mission  field- 
where  he  would  be  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
United  States  authorities. 

My  father  believed  that  if  he  left  Utah, 
his  recession  might  tend  to  placate  the  govern- 
ment and  soften  the  severity  of  the  prosecu- 
tions of  the  Mormons;  and  accordingly,  on 
the  night  of  February  12,  1886,  he  boarded 
a  west-bound  Central  Pacific  train  at  Willard. 
The  Federal  officers  in  some  way  learned  of  it ; 
he  was  arrested,  on  the  train,  at  Humboldt 
Wells,  Nevada,  and  brought  back  to  Utah. 
Near  Promontory  he  fell  from  the  steps  of  the 
moving  car,  at  night,  in  the  midst  of  an  alkali 
desert,  and  hurt  himself  seriously.  He  was 
recaptured  and  brought  to  Salt  Lake  City  on 
a  stretcher,  in  a  special  car,  guarded  by  a  squad 
of  soldiers  from  Fort  Douglas,  with  loaded 
muskets,  and  a  captain  with  a  conspicuous 
sword.  He  was  taken  to  Judge  Zane's  cham- 
bers and  placed  under  bonds  of  $25,000. 
Immediately  two  bench  warrants  were  issued 
by  a  United  States  Commissioner,  and  these 
were  served  upon  him  while  he  lay  on  a  mat- 
tress on  the  floor  of  Zane's  office.  Two  more 

46 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

bonds  of  $10,000  each  were  given.  He  was 
then  taken  to  his  home. 

Later — (President  Taylor  still  insisting  that 
he  must  not  stand  trial) — he  disappeared 
again,  "on  the  underground,"  and  his  bonds 
were  declared  forfeited.  But  in  the  mean- 
time, while  the  grand  jury  was  hearing  testi- 
mony against  him,  one  of  the  beloved  women 
of  his  family  was  called  for  examination,  and 
District  Attorney  Dickson  asked  her  some 
questions  that  deeply  wounded  her.  She 
returned  home  weeping.  My  brothers  and 
I  felt  that  the  questions  had  been  needlessly 
offensive,  and  after  an  indignant  discussion 
of  the  matter,  I  undertook  to  remonstrate 
personally  with  Mr.  Dickson. 

If  I  had  been  as  wise,  then,  as  I  sometimes 
think  I  am  now,  I  should  have  realized  that 
a  meeting  between  us  was  dangerous;  that 
the  feeling,  on  our  side  at  least,  was  too  warm 
for  calm  remonstrances.  And  I  should  not 
have  taken  with  me  a  younger  brother,  about 
sixteen  years  old,  with  all  the  hot-headed- 
ness  of  youth.  Fortunately  we  did  not  go 
armed. 

We  sought  Dickson  in  the  evening,  at  the 
Continental  Hotel — the  old,  adobe  Conti- 
nental with  its  wide  porches  and  its  lawn 
trees — and  we  found  him  in  the  lobby.  I 
asked  him  to  step  out  on  the  porch,  where 
I  might  speak  with  him  in  private.  He  came 
without  a  moment's  hesitation.  He  was  a 

47 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

big,  handsome,  black-bearded  man  in  the 
prime  of  his  strength. 

We  had  scarcely  exchanged  more  than  a  few 
sentences  formally,  when  my  brother  drew 
back  and  struck  him  a  smashing  blow  in  the 
face.  Dickson  grappled  with  me,  a  little 
blinded,  and  I  called  to  the  boy  to  run — 
which  he  very  wisely  did.  Dickson  and  I  were 
at  once  surrounded,  and  I  was  arrested. 

Ordinarily  the  incident  would  have  been 
trivial  enough,  but  in  the  alarmed  state  of 
the  public  mind  it  was  magnified  into  an 
attempt  on  the  part  of  George  Q.  Cannon's 
sons  to  take  the  life  of  the  United  States 
District  Attorney.  Indictments  were  found 
against  my  brother  and  myself,  and  against 
a  cousin  who  happened  to  be  in  another  part 
of  the  hotel  at  the  time  of  the  attack.  Some 
weeks  later,  when  the  excitement  had  rather 
died  down,  I  went  to  the  District  Attorney's 
office  and  arranged  with  his  assistant,  Mr. 
Varian,  that  the  indictments  against  my 
brother  (who  had  escaped  from  Utah)  and 
my  cousin  (who  was  wholly  innocent)  should 
be  quashed,  and  that  I  should  plead  guilty 
to  a  charge  of  assault  and  battery.  On  this 
understanding,  I  appeared  in  court  before 
Chief  Justice  Zane. 

But  Mr.  Varian,  having  consulted  with 
Mr.  Dickson,  had  learned  that  I  had  not 
struck  the  blow — though,  as  the  elder  brother, 
I  was  morally  responsible  for  it — and  he 

48 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

suggested  to  the  court  that  sentence  be  sus- 
pended. This,  Justice  Zane  seemed  prepared 
to  do,  but  I  objected.  I  was  a  newspaper 
writer  (as  I  explained),  and  I  felt  that  if 
I  criticized  the  court  thereafter  for  what  I 
believed  to  be  a  harshness  that  amounted 
to  persecution,  I  could  be  silenced  by  the 
imposition  of  the  suspended  sentence;  and 
if  I  failed  to  criticize,  I  should  be  false  to 
what  I  considered  my  duty.  I  did  not  wish 
to  be  put  in  any  such  position;  and  I  said  so. 

Justice  Zane  had  a  respect  for  the  consti- 
tution and  the  statutes  that  amounted  to  a 
creed  of  infallibility.  He  was  the  most 
superbly  rigid  pontiff  of  legal  justice  that  I 
ever  knew.  A  man  of  unspotted  character, 
a  Puritan,  of  a  sincerity  that  was  afterwards 
accepted  and  admired  from  end  to  end  of 
Utah,  he  was  determined  to  vindicate  the 
essential  supremacy  of  the  civil  law  over  the 
ecclesiastical  domination  in  the  territory;  and 
every  act  of  insubordination  against  that  law 
was  resented  and  punished  by  him,  unforgiv- 
ingly.  He  promptly  sentenced  me  to  three 
months  in  the  County  Jail  and  a  fine  of  $150. 

My  imprisonment  was,  of  course,  a  farce. 
I  was  merely  confined,  most  of  the  time,  in 
a  room  in  the  County  Court  House,  where  I 
lived  and  worked  as  if  I  were  in  my  home. 
But  the  sentence  remained  on  my  record  as 
a  sufficient  mark  of  my  recalcitrance;  and 
I  knew  that  it  would  not  aid  me  in  my  appeal 

49 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  Washington,  where  I  intended  to  argue — 
as  the  first  wise  concession  needed  of  the 
Federal  authorities — that  Chief  Justice  Zane 
should  no  longer  be  retained  on  the  bench 
in  Utah,  but  should  be  succeeded  by  a  man 
more  gentle.  He  was  the  great  figure  among 
our  prosecutors;  the  others  were  District 
Attorney  Dickson  and  the  two  assistants, 
Mr.  Varian  and  Mr.  Hiles.  The  square  had 
only  seemed  to  be  broken  by  the  recent  retire- 
ment of  Mr.  Dickson;  the  strength  of  his 
purpose  remained  still  in  power,  in  the  person 
of  Judge  Zane. 

And  let  me  say  that  whatever  my  opinion 
was  of  these  men,  at  that  time,  I  recognize 
now  that  they  were  justified  as  officers  of 
the  law  in  enforcing  the  law.  If  it  had  not 
been  for  them,  the  Mormon  Church  would 
never  have  been  brought  to  the  point  of 
abating  one  jot  of  its  pretensions.  All  four 
men,  as  their  records  have  since  proved,  were 
much  superior  to  their  positions  as  territorial 
officers.  Utah's  admiration  for  Judge  Zane 
was  shown,  upon  the  composition  of  our 
differences  with  the  nation,  by  the  Mormon 
vote  that  placed  him  on  the  Supreme  Court 
bench.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  strange 
psychologies  of  this  reconciliation,  that,  as 
soon  as  peace  was  made,  the  strongest  men 
of  both  parties  came  into  the  warmest  friend- 
ship; our  fear  and  hatred  of  our  prosecutors 
changed  to  respect;  and  their  opposition  to 

50 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

our  indissoluble  solidarity  changed  to  regard 
when  they  saw  us  devoting  our  strength  to 
purposes  of  which  they  could  approve.  But 
now,  in  the  midst  of  our  contentions,  the 
aspect  of  splendor  in  their  legal  authority 
had  something  baleful  in  it,  for  us;  and  we 
saw  our  own  defiance  set  with  a  halo  of 
martyrdom  and  illumined  by  the  radiance 
of  a  Church  oppressed! 

There  was  more  than  a  glimmer  of  that 
radiance  in  my  thoughts  as  I  made  the  rail- 
road journey  from  Utah  to  the  East.  The 
Union  Pacific  Railway,  on  which  I  rode, 
followed  the  route  that  the  Mormons  had 
taken  in  their  long  trek  from  the  Missouri; 
and  I  could  look  from  my  car  window  and 
imagine  them  toiling  across  those  endless 
plains — in  their  creaking  wagons,  drawn  by 
their  oxen  and  lean  farm  cows — choked  with 
dust,  burned  by  the  sun  of  the  prairies,  their 
faces  to  the  unknown  dangers  of  an  unknown 
wilderness,  and  behind  them  the  cool-roomed 
houses,  the  moist  fields,  the  tree-shaded 
streets,  all  the  quiet  and  comfort  of  the  settled 
life  of  homekeeping  happiness  that  they  had 
left.  My  own  mother  had  come  that  road, 
a  little  girl  of  eight;  and  my  mind  was  full 
of  pictures  of  her,  at  school  in  a  wagon-box, 
singing  hymns  with  her  elders  around  the 
camp  fires  at  night,  or  kneeling  with  the 
mourners  beside  the  grave  of  an  infant  relative 
buried  by  the  roadside.  Our  train  crossed 

51 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  Loup  Fork  of  the  Platte  almost  within 
sight  of  the  place  where  my  father,  a  lad  of 
twenty,  had  led  across  the  river  at  nightfall, 
had  been  lost  to  his  party,  and  had  nearly 
perished,  naked  to  the  cold,  before  he  strug- 
gled back  to  the  camp.  I  could  see  their 
little  circle  of  wagons  drawn  up  at  sunset 
against  the  menace  of  the  Indians  who  snaked 
through  the  long  grass  to  kill.  I  could  feel 
some  of  their  despair,  and  my  heart  lifted  to 
their  heroism.  Never  had  such  a  migration 
been  made  by^any  people  with  fewer  of  the 
concomitants  rof  their  civilization.  Their 
arms  had  been  taken  from  them  at  Nauvoo; 
they  had  bartered  their  goods  for  wagons 
and  cattle  to  carry  them;  even  the  grain 
that  they  brought,  for  food,  had  to  be  saved 
for  seed.  They  felt  themselves  devoted  to 
destruction  by  the  people  with  whose  laws 
and  institutions  they  had  come  in  conflict, 
and  they  went  forth  bravely,  trusting  in  the 
power  of  the  God  whom  they  were  deter- 
mined to  worship  according  to  their  despised 
belief. 

Now  they  had  built  themselves  new  homes 
and  meeting-houses  in  the  fertile  "Valley;" 
and  the  civilization  that  they  had  left,  having 
covered  the  distance  of  their  exile,  was  pun- 
ishing them  again  for  their  law-breaking 
fidelity  to  their  faith.  Surely  they  had 
suffered  enough!  Surely  it  was  evident  that 
suffering  only  made  them  strong  to  resist! 

52 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Surely  there  must  be  somebody  in  power  in 
Washington  who  could  be  persuaded  to  see 
that,  where  force  had  always  failed,  there 
might  be  some  profit  in  employing  gentleness ! 

This,  at  least,  was  the  appeal  which  I  had 
planned  to  make.  And  I  had  decided  to  make 
it  through  Mr.  Abraham  S.  Hewitt,  then 
mayor  of  New  York  City,  who  had  been  a 
friend  of  my  father  in  Congress.  He  was  not 
in  favor  with  the  administration  at  Wash- 
ington. He  was  personally  unfriendly  to 
President  Cleveland.  I  was  a  stranger  to 
him.  But  I  had  seen  enough  of  him  to  know 
that  he  had  the  heart  to  hear  a  plea  on  behalf 
of  the  Mormons,  and  the  brain  to  help  me 
carry  that  plea  diplomatically  to  President 
Cleveland. 

When  I  arrived  in  New  York  I  set  about 
finding  him  without  the  aid  of  any  common 
friend.  I  did  not  try  to  reach  him  at  his 
home,  being  aware  that  he  might  resent  an 
intrusion  of  public  matters  upon  his  private 
leisure,  and  fearing  to  impair  my  own  con- 
fidence by  beginning  with  a  rebuff.  I  decided 
to  see  him  in  his  office  hours. 

I  cannot  recall  why  I  did  not  find  him  in 
the  municipal  buildings,  but  I  well  remember 
going  to  and  fro  in  the  streets  in  search  of 
him,  feeling  at  every  step  the  huge  city's 
absorption  in  its  own  press  and  hurry  of 
affairs,  and  seeing  the  troubles  of  Utah  as 
distant  as  a  foreign  war.  It  was  with  a  very 

53 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

keen  sense  of  discouragement  that  I  took  my 
place,  at  last,  in  the  long  line  of  applicants 
waiting  for  a  word  with  the  man  who  directed 
the  municipal  activities  of  this  tremendous 
hive  of  eager  energy. 

He  was  in  the  old  Stewart  building,  on 
Broadway,  near  Park  Place;  and  he  had  his 
desk  in  what  was,  I  think,  a  temporary 
office — an  empty  shop  used  as  an  office — on 
the  ground  floor.  There  must  have  been 
fifty  men  ahead  of  me,  and  they  were  the 
unemployed,  as  I  remember  it,  besieging 
him  for  work.  They  came  to  his  desk,  spoke, 
and  passed  with  a  rapidity  that  was  ominous. 
As  I  drew  nearer,  I  watched  him  anxiously, 
and  saw  the  incessant,  nervous,  querulous 
activity  of  eyes,  lips,  hands,  as  he  dismissed 
each  with  a  word  or  a  scratch  of  the  pen, 
and  looked  up  sharply  at  the  next  one. 

" Well,  young  man,"  he  greeted  me,  "what 
do  you  want?" 

I  replied :  "  I  want  a  half  hour  of  your  time. ' ' 

"  Good  God,"  he  said,  in  a  sort  of  reproach- 
ful indignation,  "I  couldn't  give  it  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States." 

I  felt  the^rcrowd  of  applicants  pressing 
behind  me.  I  knew  the  man's  prodigious 
humanity.  I  knew  that  if  I  could  only  hold 
them  back  long  enough — "Mr.  Hewitt," 
I  said,  "it's  more  important  even  than  that. 
It's  to  save  a  whole  people  from  suffering — 
from  destruction." 

54 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

He  may  have  thought  me  a  maniac;  or  it 
may  be  that  the  desperation  of  the  moment 
sounded  in  my  voice.  He  frowned  intently 
up  at  me.  "Who  are  you?" 

11  I'm  the  son  of  your  old  friend  in  Congress, 
George  Q.  Cannon  of  Utah,"  I  said.  "My 
father's  in  exile.  He  and  his  people  are 
threatened  with  endless  proscriptions.  I 
want  time  to  tell  you." 

His  impatience  had  vanished.  His  eyes 
were  steadily  kind  and  interested.  "  Can 
you  come  to  the  Board  of  Health,  in  an  hour  ? 
As  soon  as  I  open  the  meeting,  I'll  retire  and 
listen  to  you." 

I  asked  him  for  a  card,  to  admit  me  to  the 
meeting,  having  been  stopped  that  morning 
at  many  doors.  He  gave  it,  nodded,  and 
flashed  his  attention  on  the  man  behind  me. 
I  went  out  with  the  heady  assurance  that  my 
first  move  had  succeeded;  but  I  went,  too, 
with  the  restrained  pulse  of  realizing  that  I 
had  yet  to  join  issue  with  the  decisive  event 
and  do  it  warily. 

I  do  not  remember  where  I  found  the  Board 
of  Health  in  session.  I  recall  only  the  dark, 
official  board-room,  the  members  at  the  table, 
and — as  the  one  small  spot  of  light  and  inter- 
est to  me — Mr.  Hewitt's  white-bearded  face, 
as  an  attendant  opened  the  door  to  me,  and 
the  Mayor,  looking  up  alertly,  nodded  across 
the  room,  and  waved  his  hand  to  a  chair. 

As  soon  as  he  had  opened  the  meeting,  we 

55 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

withdrew  together  to  a  settee  in  some  remote 
corner,  and  I  began  to  tell  him,  as  quickly 
as  I  could,  the  desperateness  of  the  Mormon 
situation.  "Yes,"  he  said,  "but  why  can't 
your  people  obey  the  law?" 

I  explained  what  I  have  been  trying  to 
explain  in  this  narrative — that  these  people, 
following  a  Church  which  they  believed  to  be 
guided  by  God,  and  regarding  themselves  as 
objects  of  a  religious  persecution,  could  not 
be  brought  by  means  of  force  to  obey  a  law 
against  conscience.  I  explained  that  I  was 
not  pleading  to  save  their  pride  but  to  spare 
them  useless  suffering;  their  history  showed 
that  no  proscription,  short  of  extermination 
outright,  could  overcome  their  resistance; 
but  what  force  could  not  accomplish,  a  little 
sensible  diplomacy  might  hope  to  effect.  No 
first  step  could  be  made,  by  them,  towards 
a  composition  of  their  differences  with  the 
law  so  long  as  the  law  was  administered  with 
a  hostility  that  provoked  hostility.  But  if 
we  could  obtain  some  mitigation  of  the  law's 
severity,  the  leaders  of  the  Church  were  willing 
to  surrender  themselves  to  the  court — such  of 
them  as  had  not  already  died  of  their  priva- 
tions or  served  their  terms  of  imprisonment — 
and  a  sense  of  gratitude  for  leniency  would 
prepare  the  way  for  a  recession  from  their 
present  attitude  of  unconquerable  antagonism. 

He  listened  gravely,  knowing  the  situation 
from  his  own  experience  in  Congress,  and 

56 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

checking  off  the  items  of  my  argument  with 
a  nod  of  acceptance  that  came,  often,  before 
I  had  completed  what  I  had  to  say.  He 
asked :  "  Do  you  know  President  Cleveland  ? " 

I  told  him  that  I  had  seen  the  President 
several  times  but  was  not  known  to  him. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "I  may  be  able  to  help 
you  indirectly.  I  don't  care  for  Cleveland, 
and  I  wouldn't  ask  him  for  a  favor  if  I  were 
sinking.  But  tell  me  what  plan  you  have  in 
your  mind,  and  111  see  if  I  can't  aid  you — 
through  friends." 

I  replied  that  I  hoped  to  have  some  man 
appointed  as  Chief  Justice  in  Utah  who  should 
adopt  a  less  rigorous  way  of  adjudicating 
upon  the  cases  of  polygamists;  but  that 
before  he  was  selected — or  at  least  before  he 
knew  of  his  appointment — I  wished  to  talk 
with  him  and  convert  him  to  the  idea  that 
he  could  begin  the  solution  of  "the  Mormon 
question"  by  having  the  leaders  of  the  com- 
munity come  into  his  court  and  accept  sen- 
tences that  should  not  be  inconsistent  with 
the  sovereignty  of  the  law  but  not  unmerciful 
to  the  subjects  of  that  sovereignty. 

"The  man  you  want,"  Mr.  Hewitt  said, 
"  is  here  in  New  York — Elliot  F.  Sandford. 
He's  a  referee  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  this 
state — a  fine  man,  great  legal  ability,  coura- 
geous, of  undoubted  integrity.  Come  to  me, 
tomorrow.  I'll  introduce  you  to  him." 

It  was  the  first  time  that  I  had  even  heard 

57 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  name  of  Elliot  F.  Sandford;  and  I  had  not 
the  faintest  notion  of  how  best  to  approach  him. 

I  did  not  find  him  in  Mr.  Hewitt's  office, 
on  the  morrow;  but  the  Mayor  had  com- 
municated with  him,  and  now  gave  me  a 
letter  of  introduction  to  him;  and  I  went 
alone  to  present  it. 

He  received  me  in  his  outer  office,  with  a 
manner  full  of  kindliness  but  non-committal. 
He  glanced  through  my  letter  of  introduction, 
and  I  tried  to  read  him  while  he  did  it.  He 
was  not  on  the  surface.  He  was  a  tall,  dig- 
nified man,  his  hair  turning  gray — thoughtful, 
judicial — evidently  a  man  who  was  not  quick 
to  decide.  He  led  me  into  his  private  room, 
and  sat  down  with  the  air  of  a  lawyer  who  has 
been  asked  to  take  a  case  and  who  wishes 
first  to  hear  all  the  details  of  the  action. 

I  began  by  describing  the  Mormon  situation 
as  I  saw  it  in  those  days:  that  the  Mormons 
were  growing  more  desperately  determined 
in  their  opposition,  because  they  believed 
their  prosecutors  were  persecuting  them; 
that  the  District  Attorney  and  his  assistants 
were  harsh  to  the  point  of  heartlessness,  and 
that  Judge  Zane  (to  us,  then)  acted  like  a 
religious  fanatic  in  his  judicial  office;  that 
nearly  every  Federal  official  in  Utah  had  taken 
a  tone  of  bigoted  opposition  to  the  people; 
and  that  the  law  was  detested  and  the  govern- 
ment despised  because  of  the  actions  of 
Federal  "  carpet-baggers. ' ' 

58 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  was  prejudiced,  no  doubt,  and  partisan 
in  my  account  of  the  state  of  affairs,  but  I 
did  not  exaggerate  the  facts  as  I  saw  them; 
I  believed  what  I  said. 

I  did  not  really  reach  his  sympathy  until 
I  spoke  of  the  court  system  in  Utah — the 
open  venire,  the  employment  of  "professional 
jurors" — the  legal  doctrine  of  " segregation," 
under  which  a  man  might  be  separately 
indicted  for  every  day  of  his  living  in  plural 
marriage — and  the  result  of  all  this :  that  the 
pursuit  of  defendants  and  the  confiscation 
of  property  had  become  less  an  enforcement 
of  law  than  a  profitable  legal  industry. 

After  two  hours  of  argument  and  examina- 
tion, I  ended  with  an  appeal  to  him  to  accept 
the  opportunity  to  undertake  a  merciful 
assuagement  of  our  misery.  After  so  many 
years  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Federal 
authorities,  he  might  have  the  distinction 
of  calling  into  his  court  the  Mormon  leaders 
who  had  been  most  long  and  vainly  sought 
by  the  law;  and  by  sentencing  them  to  a 
supportable  punishment,  he  could  begin  the 
composition  of  a  conflict  that  had  gone  on 
for  half  a  century. 

He  replied  with  reasons  that  expressed  a 
kindly  unwillingness  to  undertake  the  work. 
It  would  mean  the  sacrifice  of  his  professional 
career  in  New  York.  He  would  be  putting 
himself  entirely  outside  the  progression  of 
advancement.  His  friends,  here,  would  never 

59 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

understand  why  he  had  done  it.  The  affairs 
of  Utah  had  little  interest  for  them. 

I  saw  that  he  was  not  convinced.  His 
wife  had  been  waiting  some  minutes  in  the 
outer  office;  he  proposed  that  he  should  bring 
her  in;  and  I  gathered  from  his  manner,  that 
he  expected  her  to  pronounce  against  his 
accepting  my  solicitation,  and  so  terminate 
our  interview  pleasantly,  with  the  aid  of  the 
feminine  social  grace. 

Mrs.  Sandford,  when  she  entered,  certainly 
looked  the  very  lady  to  do  the  thing  with 
gentle  skill.  She  was  handsome,  with  an 
animated  expression,  dark-eyed,  dark-haired, 
charming  in  her  costume,  a  woman  of  the 
smiling  world,  but  maturely  sincere  and  un- 
affected. I  took  a  somewhat  distracted  im- 
pression of  her  greeting,  and  heard  him  begin 
to  explain  my  proposal  to  her,  as  one  hears 
a  "silent  partner"  formally  consulted  by  a 
man  who  has  already  made  up  his  mind. 
But  when  I  glanced  at  her,  seated,  her  manner 
had  changed.  She  was  listening  as  if  she 
were  used  to  being  consulted  and  knew  the 
responsibilities  of  decision.  She  had  the 
abstracted  eye  of  impersonal  consideration — 
silent — with  now  and  then  a  slow,  meditative 
glance  at  me. 

Her  first  question  seemed  merely  femininely 
curious  as  to  the  domestic  aspects  of  polyg- 
amy. How  did  the  women  endure  it  ? 

I  repeated  a  conversation  I  had  once  had 

60 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

with  Frances  Willard,  who  had  said:  "The 
woman's  heart  must  ache  in  polygamy."  To 
which  I  had  made  the  obvious  reply:  "Don't 
women's  hearts  ache  all  over  the  world?  Is 
there  any  condition  of  society  in  which  women 
do  not  bear  more  than  an  equal  share  of  the 
suffering?" 

Mrs.  Sandford  asked  me  pointedly  whether 
I  was  living  in  polygamy? 

No,  I  was  not. 

Did  I  believe  in  it  ? 

I  believed  that  those  did  who  practised  it. 

Why  didn't  I  practise  it? 

Those  who  practised  it  believed  that  it  had 
been  authorized  by  a  divine  revelation.  I 
had  not  received  such  a  revelation.  I  did 
not  expect  to. 

Our  talk  warmed  into  a  very  intimate 
discussion  of  the  lives  of  the  Mormon  people, 
but  I  supposed  that  she  was  moved  only  by 
a  curiosity  to  which  I  was  accustomed — a 
curiosity  that  was  not  necessarily  sympathetic 
— the  curiosity  one  might  have  about  the 
domestic  life  of  a  Mohammedan.  I  took 
advantage  of  her  curiosity  to  lead  up  to  an 
explanation  of  how  the  proscription  of  polyg- 
amy was  driving  young  Mormons  into  the 
practice,  instead  of  frightening  them  from  it. 
And  so  I  arrived  at  another  recount al  of  the 
miserable  condition  of  persecution  and  suffer- 
ing which  I  had  come  to  ask  her  husband 
help  us  relieve ;  and  I  made  my  appeal  again, 

61 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  them  both,  with  something  of  despair,  be- 
cause of  my  failure  with  him,  and  perhaps 
with  greater  effect  because  of  my  despair. 
She  listened  thoughtfully,  her  hands  clasped. 

It  did  not  seem  that  I  had  reached  her— 
until  she  turned  to  him,  and  said  unexpectedly 
"  It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  an  opportunity— 
a  larger  opportunity  than  any  I  see  here — to 
do  a  great  deal  of  good." 

He  did  not  appear  as  surprised  as  I  was. 
He  made  some  joking  reference  to  his  income 
and  asked  her  if  she  would  be  willing  to  live 
on  a  salary  of — How  much  was  the  salary  of 
the  Chief  Justice  of  Utah  ? 

I  thought  it  was  about  $3,000  a  year. 

"Two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  month," 
he  said.  "  How  many  bonnets  will  that  buy  ?' ' 

"No,"  she  retorted,  "you  can't  put  the 
blame  on  my  millinery  bill.  If  that's  been 
the  cause  of  your  hesitation,  I'll  agree  to 
dress  as  becomes  the  wife  of  a  poor  but  up- 
right judge." 

In  such  a  happy  spirit  of  good-natured 
raillery,  my  petition  was  provisionally  enter- 
tained, till  I  could  see  the  President;  and  it 
is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  experience,  as  I  look 
back  upon  it  now,  that  a  decision  so  moment- 
ous in  the  history  of  Utah  owed  its  induction 
to  the  wisdom  of  a  woman  and  was  confirmed 
with  a  domestic  pleasantry. 

I  left  them  after  we  had  arrived  at  the  tacit 
understanding  that  if  President  Cleveland 

62 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

should  make  the  appointment,  Mr.  Sandford 
would  accept  it  with  the  end  in  view  that  I  had 
proposed.  I  went  to  report  my  progress,  in 
a  cipher  telegram,  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  I 
recall  the  peculiarly  mixed  satisfaction  with 
which  I  regarded  my  work,  as  I  walked  the 
streets  of  New  York  after  this  interview.  In 
all  that  city  of  millions,  I  knew,  there  were 
few  if  any  men  who  were  the  equal  of  my 
father  in  the  essentials  of  manhood;  and  yet, 
before  he  could  enjoy  the  liberties  of  which 
they  were  so  lightly  unconscious,  he  must 
endure  the  shame  of  a  prison.  I  was  rejoicing 
because  I  was  succeeding  in  getting  for  him  a 
sentence  that  should  not  be  ruinous!  I  was 
pleased  because  a  prospective  judge  had  been 
persuaded  to  be  not  too  harsh  to  him ! 

It  did  not  make  me  bitter.  I  realized  that 
the  peculiar  faith  which  we  had  accepted  was 
responsible  for  our  peculiar  suffering.  I  saw 
that  we  were  working  out  our  human  destiny; 
and  if  that  destiny  was  not  of  God,  but  merely 
the  issue  of  human  impulsion,  still  our  only 
prospect  of  success  would  come  of  our  bearing 
with  experience  patiently  to  make  us  strong. 

When  I  went  back  to  Mr.  Hewitt,  to  tell 
him  of  my  success,  I  consulted  with  him  upon 
the  best  way  of  approaching  Mr.  Cleveland. 
And  he  was  not  encouraging.  In  his  opinion 
of  the  President,  he  had,  as  I  could  see,  the 
impatient  resentment  which  a  quick-minded, 
nervous,  small-bodied  man  has  for  the  big, 

63 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

slow  one  whose  mental  operations  are  stub- 
bornly deliberate  and  leisurely.  And  he  was 
obviously  irritated  by  the  President's  con- 
tinual assumption  that  he  was  better  than 
his  party.  "He's  honest,"  he  said,  "by 
right  of  original  discovery  of  what  honesty 
is.  No  one  can  question  his  honesty.  But 
as  soon  as  he  discovers  a  better  thing  than  he 
knew  previously,  he  announces  it  as  if  it  were 
the  discovery  of  a  new  planet.  It  may  have 
been  a  commonplace  for  a  generation.  That 
doesn't  signify.  He  announces  it  with  such 
ponderosity  that  the  world  believes  it's  as 
prodigious  as  his  sentences!" 

As  for  my  own  mission :  I  would  have  to  be 
persistent,  patient,  and — lucky.  "  You'll  have 
to  be  lucky,  if  you  intend  to  persuade  him  to 
acquire  any  information.  He's  been  so  suc- 
cessful in  instructing  mankind  that  it's  hard 
to  get  him  to  see  he  doesn't  know  all  he  ought 
to  know  about  a  public  question.  But  he's 
honest  and  he's  courageous.  If  you  can  con- 
vince him  that  your  view  is  right,  he'll  carry 
out  the  conviction  in  spite  of  everything.  In 
fact  he'll  be  all  the  better  pleased  if  it  requires 
fearlessness  and  defiance  of  general  senti- 
mentality to  carry  it  out." 

He  gave  me  a  letter  to  Mr.  William  C. 
Whitney,  then  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  ex- 
plaining my  purpose  in  coming  to  Washington, 
and  asking  him  to  obtain  for  me  an  interview 
with  President  Cleveland  without  using  Mr. 

64 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Hewitt's  name.  Then  he  shook  hands  with 
me,  and  wished  me  success.  "  I  have  the 
faith,"  he  said,  "that  is  without  hope." 

That    expressed    my    own    feeling.      The 
faith  that  was  without  hope ! 


65 


CHAPTER  III 

WITHOUT  A  COUNTRY 

So  I  came  to  Washington.  So  I  entered 
the  capital  of  the  government  that  commanded 
my  allegiance  and  inspired  my  fear.  I  wonder 
whether  another  American  ever  saw  that  city 
with  such  eyes  of  envy,  of  aspiration,  of  wist- 
ful pride,  of  daunted  admiration.  Here  were 
all  the  consecrations  of  a  nation's  memories, 
and  they  thrilled  me,  even  while  they  pierced 
me  with  the  sense  that  I  was  not,  and  might 
well  despair  of  ever  being,  a  citizen  of  their 
glory.  Here  were  the  monuments  of  patriot- 
ism in  Statuary  Hall,  erected  to  the  men  whose 
histories  had  been  the  inspiration  of  my  boy- 
hood; and  I  remember  how  I  stood  before 
them,  conscious  that  I  was  now  almost  an 
outlaw  from  their  communion  of  splendor. 
I  remember  how  I  saw,  with  an  indescribable 
conflict  of  feelings,  the  ranked  graves  of  the 
soldiers  in  the  cemetery  at  Arlington,  and 
recollected  that  this  very  ground  had  been 
taken  from  General  Lee,  that  heroic  opponent 
of  Federal  authority — and  read  the  tablet, 
"  How  sleep  the  brave  who  sink  to  rest  by  all 
their  country's  wishes  bless'd," — and  bowed 
in  spirit  to  the  nation's  benediction  upon  the 
men  who  had  upheld  its  power.  I  was  awed 

66 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

by  a  prodigious  sense  of  the  majesty  of  that 
power.  I  saw  with  fear  its  immovability 
to  the  struggles  of  our  handful  of  people. 
And  at  night,  walking  under  the  trees  of 
Lafayette  Park,  with  all  the  odors  of  the 
southern  Spring  among  the  leaves,  I  looked 
at  the  lighted  front  of  the  White  House  and 
realized  that  behind  the  curtains  of  those 
quiet  windows  sat  the  ruler  who  held  the 
almost  absolute  right  of  life  and  death  over 
our  community — as  if  it  were  the  palace  of  a 
Czar  that  I  must  soon  enter,  with  a  petition 
for  clemency,  which  he  might  refuse  to  enter- 
tain! 

When  I  had  been  in  Washington,  four  years 
before,  as  secretary  to  Delegate  John  T.  Caine 
of  Utah,  I  had  felt  a  younger  assurance  that 
our  resistance  would  slowly  wear  out  the 
Federal  authority  and  carry  us  through  to 
statehood.  Four  years  of  disaster  had  starved 
out  that  hope.  The  proposition  had  been 
established  that  Congress  had  supreme  control 
over  the  territories;  and  there  was  no  virtue 
either  in  our  religious  assumption  of  warrant 
to  speak  for  God,  or  in  our  plea  of  inherent 
constitutional  right  to  manage  our  own 
affairs.  Thirty  years  earlier,  my  father  had 
been  elected  Senator  from  the  proposed  state 
of  Utah,  and  he  had  been  rejected.  In  thirty 
years  so  little  progress  had  been  made !  The 
way  that  was  yet  to  travel  seemed  very  long 
and  very  dark. 

67 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Out  of  this  mood  of  despondence  I  had  to 
lift  myself  by  an  act  of  will.  There,  Wash- 
ington itself  helped  me  against  itself.  I  made 
a  pilgrimage  of  courage  to  its  commemora- 
tions of  courage,  and  drew  an  inspiration  of 
hope  from  its  monuments  to  the  achievements 
of  its  past.  And  particularly  I  went  to  the 
house  in  which  my  father  had  lived  when  he 
had  had  his  part  in  the  statesman  life  of  the 
capital,  and  animated  my  resolution  with  the 
thought  that  I  must  succeed  in  order  that  he 
might  be  restored  in  public  honor. 

I  narrate  all  this  personal  incident  of  emo- 
tion in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  to  explain 
a  success  that  might  otherwise  seem  inexplic- 
able. The  Mormon  Church  had,  for  years, 
employed  every  art  of  intrigue  and  diplomacy 
to  protect  itself  in  Washington.  I  wish  to 
make  plain  that  it  was  not  by  any  superior 
cunning  of  negotiation  that  my  mission  suc- 
ceeded. I  undertook  the  task  almost  without 
instruction ;  I  performed  it  without  falsehood ; 
I  had  nothing  in  my  mind  but  an  honest 
loyalty  for  my  own  people,  a  desire  to  be  a 
citizen  of  my  native  country,  and  a  filial 
devotion  to  the  one  man  in  the  world  whom 
I  most  admired. 

When  I  delivered  my  letter  of  introduction 
from  Mr.  Hewitt  to  Mr.  William  C.  Whitney, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  I  found  him  very  busy 
with  his  work  in  his  department — carrying 
out  the  plans  that  established  the  modern 

68 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

American  navy  and  entitled  him  to  be  called 
the  "father"  of  it.  He  withdrew  from  the 
men  who  were  discussing  designs  and  figures 
at  a  table  in  his  room,  and  sat  with  me  before 
a  window  that  looked  out  upon  the  White 
House  and  its  grounds ;  and  he  listened  to  me, 
interestedly,  genially,  but  with  a  thought 
still  (as  I  could  see)  for  the  affairs  that  my 
arrival  had  interrupted.  He  struck  me  as  a 
man  who  was  used  to  having  many  weighty 
matters  together  on  his  mind,  without  finding 
his  attention  crowded  by  them  all,  and  with- 
out being  impatient  in  his  consideration  of 
any. 

I  developed  with  him  an  idea  which  I  had 
been  considering:  that  the  President  might 
not  only  help  the  Mormons  by  taking  up  their 
case,  but  might  gain  political  prestige  for  the 
coming  campaign  for  re-election,  by  adjusting 
the  dissent  ions  in  Utah.  He  heard  me  with 
a  twinkle.  He  thought  an  interview  might 
be  arranged.  He  made  an  appointment  to 
see  me  in  the  afternoon  and  to  have  with 
him  Colonel  Daniel  S.  Lamont,  the  President's 
secretary,  who  was  then  Mr.  Cleveland's 
political  "trainer." 

My  meeting  with  Colonel  Lamont,  in  the 
afternoon,  began  jocularly.  "This,"  Mr. 
Whitney  introduced  me,  "is  the  young  man 
who  has  a  plan  to  use  that  mooted — and 
booted — Mormon  question  to  re-elect  the 
President." 

69 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

"Hardly  that,  Mr.  Secretary,"  I  said. 
"I  have  a  plan  to  help  my  father  and  his 
colleagues  to  regain  their  citizenship.  If 
President  Cleveland's  re-election  is  essential 
to  it,  I  suppose  I  must  submit.  You  know 
I'm  a  Republican." 

They  laughed.  We  sat  down.  And  I  found 
at  once  that  Colonel  Lamont  understood  the 
situation  in  Utah,  thoroughly.  He  had  often 
discussed  it,  he  said,  with  the  Church's  agents 
in  Washington.  I  went  over  the  situation 
with  him,  as  I  had  gone  over  it  with  Mr. 
Sandford,  in  careful  detail.  He  seemed 
surprised  at  my  assurance  that  my  father 
and  the  other  proscribed  leaders  of  the  Church 
would  submit  themselves  to  the  courts  if 
they  could  do  so  on  the  conditions  that  I 
proposed;  I  convinced  him  of  the  possibility 
by  referring  him  to  Mr.  Richards,  the  Church's 
attorney  in  Washington,  for  a  confirmation 
of  it.  I  pointed  out  that  if  these  leaders 
surrendered,  President  Cleveland  could  be 
made  the  direct  beneficiary,  politically,  of 
their  composition  with  the  law. 

Colonel  Lamont  was  a  small,  alert  man  with 
a  conciseness  of  speech  and  manner  that  is 
associated  in  my  memory  with  the  bristle 
of  his  red  moustache  cut  short  and  hard  across 
a  decisive  mouth.  He  radiated  nervous 
vitality;  and  I  understood,  as  I  studied  him, 
how  President  Cleveland,  with  his  infinite 
patience  for  detail,  had  survived  so  well  in 

70 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  multitudinous  duties  of  his  office — having 
as  his  secretary  a  man  born  with  the  ability 
to  cut  away  the  non-essentials,  and  to  pass 
on  to  Mr.  Cleveland  only  the  affairs  worthy 
of  his  careful  deliberation. 

I  was  doubtful  whether  I  should  tell  Colonel 
Lamont  and  Mr.  Whitney  of  my  conversation 
with  Mr.  Sandford.  I  decided  that  their  con- 
siderateness  entitled  them  to  my  full  confi- 
dence, and  I  told  them  all — begging  them,  if 
I  was  indiscreet  or  undiplomatic,  to  charge 
the  offence  to  my  lack  of  experience  rather 
than  to  debit  it  against  my  cause. 

They  passed  it  off  with  banter.  It  was 
understood  that  the  President  should  not  be 
told — and  that  I  should  not  tell  him — of  my 
talk  with  Mr.  Sandford.  Colonel  Lamont 
undertook  to  arrange  an  audience  with  Mr. 
Cleveland  for  me.  ''You  had  better  wait," 
he  said,  "until  I  can  approach  him  with  the 
suggestion  that  there's  a  young  man  here, 
from  Utah,  whom  he  ought  to  see." 

I  knew,  then,  that  I  was  at  least  well  started 
on  the  open  road  to  success.  I  knew  that  if 
Colonel  Lamont  said  he  would  help  me,  there 
would  be  no  difficulties  in  my  way  except 
those  that  were  large  in  the  person  of  the 
President  himself. 

Two  days  later  I  received  the  expected 
word  from  Colonel  Lamont,  and  I  went  to 
the  White  House  as  a  man  might  go  to  face 
his  own  trial.  I  met  the  secretary  in  one  of 

71 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  eastern  upstairs  rooms  of  the  official 
apartments;  and  after  the  usual  crowd  had 
passed  out,  he  led  me  into  the  President's 
office — which  then  overlooked  the  Washington 
monument,  the  Potomac  and  the  Virginia 
shore.  Mr.  Cleveland  was  working  at  his 
desk.  Colonel  Lamont  introduced  me  by 
name,  and  added,  "  the  young  man  from  Utah, 
of  whom  I  spoke." 

The  President  did  not  look  up.  He  was 
signing  some  papers,  bending  heavily  over 
his  work.  It  took  him  a  moment  or  twro  to 
finish ;  then  he  dropped  his  pen,  pushed  aside 
the  papers,  turned  awkwardly  in  his  swivel 
chair  and  held  out  his  hand  to  me.  It  was 
a  cool,  firm  hand,  and  its  grasp  surprised  me, 
as  much  as  the  expression  of  his  eyes — the 
steady  eyes  of  complete  self-control,  com- 
posure, intentness. 

I  had  come  with  a  prejudice  against  him; 
I  was  a  partisan  of  Mr.  Elaine,  whom  he  had 
defeated  for  the  Presidency;  I  believed  Mr. 
Elaine  to  be  the  abler  man.  But  there  was 
something  in  Mr.  Cleveland's  hand  and  eyes 
to  warn  me  that  however  slow-moving  and 
even  dull  he  might  appear,  the  energy  of  a 
firm  will  compelled  and  controlled  him.  It 
stiffened  me  into  instant  attention. 
F7-  He  made  some  remark  to  Colonel  Lamont 
to  indicate  that  our  conversation  was  to 
occupy  about  half  an  hour.  He  asked  me  to 
be  seated  in  a  chair  at  the  right-hand  side 

72 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  his  desk.  He  said  almost  challengingly : 
'You're  the  young  man  they  want  I  should 
talk  to  about  the  Utah  question." 

The  tone  was  not  exactly  unkind,  but  it  was 
not  inviting.  I  said,  "Yes,  sir." 

He  looked  at  me,  as  a  judge  might  eye  the 
suspect  of  circumstantial  evidence.  ;<  You're 
the  son  of  one  of  the  Mormon  leaders." 

I  admitted  it. 

And  then  he  began. 

He  began  with  an  account  of  what  he  had 
done  to  compose  the  differences  in  Utah.  He 
explained  and  justified  the  appointments  he 
had  made  there — appointments  that  had  been 
recommended  by  Southern  senators  and  rep- 
resentatives who,  because  they  were  South- 
erners, were  opposed  to  the  undue  extension 
and  arbitrary  use  of  Federal  power.  He  had 
made  Caleb  W.  West  of  Kentucky  governor 
of  Utah  on  the  recommendation  of  Senator 
Blackburn  of  Kentucky,  my  father's  friend. 
He  had  made  Frank  H.  Dyer,  originally 
of  Mississippi,  United  States  Marshal.  He 
had  appointed  a  District  Attorney  in  whom 
he  had  every  confidence.  He  had  a  right  to 
believe  that  these  men,  recommended  by  the 
statesmen  of  the  South,  would  execute  and 
adjudicate  the  laws  in  Utah  according  to  the 
most  lenient  Southern  construction  of  Federal 
rights.  He  dwelt  upon  Governor  West's 
charitable  intentions  towards  the  Mormon 
leaders,  went  over  West's  efforts  at  pacifica- 

73 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tion  in  accurate  detail,  and  told  of  West's 
chagrin  at  his  failure — with  an  irritation  that 
showed  how  disappointed  he  himself  was  with 
the  continued  recurrence  of  the  Mormon 
troubles. 

I  had  to  tell  him  that  the  situation  had  not 
improved,  and  his  face  flushed  with  an  anger 
that  he  made  no  attempt  to  conceal.  He 
declared  that  the  fault  must  lie  in  our  obstinate 
determination  to  hold  ourselves  superior  to 
the  law.  He  could  not  sympathize  with  our 
sufferings,  he  said,  since  they  were  self- 
inflicted.  He  admitted  that  he  had  once 
been  opposed  to  the  Edmunds-Tucker  bill, 
but  felt  now  that  it  was  justified  by  the  im- 
movability of  the  Mormons.  All  palliatives 
had  failed.  The  patience  of  Congress  had 
been  exhausted.  There  was  no  recourse, 
except  to  make  statutes  cutting  enough  to 
destroy  the  illegal  practices  and  unlawful 
leadership  in  the  Mormon  community. 

"Mr.  President,"  I  pleaded,  "I've  lived  in 
Utah  all  my  life.  I  know  these  people  from 
both  points  of  view.  You  know  of  the  situa- 
tion only  from  Federal  office  holders  who  con- 
sider it  solely  with  regard  to  their  official 
responsibility  to  you  and  to  the  country. 
Why  not  learn  what  the  Mormons  think?" 

He  replied  that  it  was  not  within  the  prov- 
ince of  the  President — his  power  or  his  duty — 
to  consider  the  mental  attitude  of  men  who 
were  opposing  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 

74 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

It  was  an  inexcusable  offence  against  the 
general  welfare  that  one  community  should 
be  rising  continually  against  the  Federal 
authority  and  occupying  the  time  and  atten- 
tion of  Congress  with  a  determined  recalci- 
trance. 

For  an  hour,  he  continued,  with  vigor  and 
dignity,  to  describe  the  situation  as  he  saw  it; 
and  he  chilled  me  to  the  heart  with  his  deter- 
mination to  concede  nothing  more  to  a  com- 
munity that  had  refused  to  be  placated  by 
what  he  had  already  conceded.  I  listened 
without  trying,  without  even  wishing,  to 
interrupt  him;  for  I  had  been  warned  by 
Mr.  Whitney  and  Colonel  Lamont  that  it 
would  be  wise  to  let  him  deliver  himself  of 
his  opinion  before  attempting  to  influence 
him  to  a  milder  one;  and  I  could  not  contra- 
dict anything  that  he  said,  for  he  made  no 
misstatements  of  fact. 

Colonel  Lamont  had  entered  once,  and  had 
withdrawn  again  when  he  saw  that  Mr. 
Cleveland  was  still  talking.  At  the  end  of 
about  an  hour,  the  President  rose.  "  Mr. 
Cannon,"  he  said,  "I  don't  see  what  more  I 
can  do  than  has  already  been  done.  Tell 
your  people  to  obey  the  law,  as  all  other  citi- 
zens are  required  to  obey  it,  and  they'll  find 
that  their  fellow-citizens  of  this  country  will 
do  full  justice  to  their  heroism  and  their  other 
good  qualities.  If  the  law  seems  harsh,  tell 
them  that  there's  an  easy  way  to  avoid  its 

75 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

cruelty  by  simply  getting  out  from  under 
its  condemnation." 

His  manner  indicated  that  the  conference 
was  at  an  end.  He  reached  out  his  hand 
as  if  to  drop  the  subject  then  and  forever,  as 
far  as  I  was  concerned.  "Mr.  President," 
I  asked,  with  the  composure  of  desperation, 
"do  you  really  want  to  settle  the  Mormon 
question?" 

He  looked  at  me  with  the  first  gleam  of 
humor  that  had  shown  in  his  eyes — and  it 
was  a  humor  of  peculiar  richness  and  unction. 
"Young  man,"  he  asked,  "what  have  I  been 
saying  to  you  all  this  time?  What  have  I 
been  working  for,  ever  since  I  first  took  up 
the  consideration  of  this  subject  at  the  be- 
ginning of  my  term?" 

"Mr.  President,"  I  replied,  "if  you  were 
travelling  in  the  West,  and  came  to  an  un- 
bridged  stream  with  your  wagon  train,  and 
saw  tracks  leading  down  into  the  water  where 
you  thought  there  was  a  ford,  you  would 
naturally  expect  to  cross  there,  assuming 
that  others  had  done  so  before  you.  But 
suppose  that  some  man  on  the  bank  should 
say  to  you:  'I've  watched  wagon  trains  go 
in  here  for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  I've 
never  yet  seen  one  come  out  on  the  other  side. 
Look  over  at  that  opposite  bank.  You  see 
there  are  no  wagon  tracks  there.  Now,  down 
the  river  a  piece,  is  a  place  where  I  think 
there's  a  ford.  I've  never  got  anybody  to 

76 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

try  it  yet,  but  certainly  it's  as  good  a  chance 
as  this  one!'  Mr.  President,  what  would 
you  do?  Would  you  attempt  a  crossing 
where  there  had  been  twenty  years  of  failure, 
or  would  you  try  the  other  place — on  the 
chance  that  it  might  take  you  over?" 

He  had  been  regarding  me  with  slowly 
fading  amusement  that  gave  way  to  an  ex- 
pression of  grave  attention. 

"I've  been  watching  this  situation  for 
several  years,"  I  went  on,  "and  it  seems  to 
me  that  there's  the  possibility  of  a  just,  a 
humane,  and  a  final  settlement  of  it,  by  get- 
ting the  Mormon  leaders  to  come  voluntarily 
into  court — and  it  can  be  done! — with  the 
assurance  that  the  object  of  the  administra- 
tion is  to  correct  the  community  evil — not  to 
exterminate  the  Mormon  Church  or  to  perse- 
cute its  'prophets,'  but  to  secure  obedience 
to  the  law  and  respect  for  the  law,  and  to 
lead  Utah  into  a  worthy  statehood." 

I  paused.  He  thought  a  moment.  Then 
he  said:  "I  can't  talk  any  longer,  now. 
Make  another  appointment  with  Lamont. 
I  want  to  hear  what  you  have  to  say."  And 
he  dismissed  me. 

Colonel  Lamont  told  me  to  come  back  on 
the  following  afternoon ;  and  I  went  away  with 
the  dubious  relief  of  feeling  that  if  I  had  not 
yet  won  my  case  I  had,  at  least,  succeeded 
in  having  judgment  reserved.  I  went  to 
work  to  arrange  my  arguments  for  the  morrow, 

77 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  make  them  as  concise  as  possible  and  to 
divide  them  into  brief  chapters  in  case  I 
should  have  as  little  opportunity  for  extended 
explanations  as  the  President  had  been  giving 
me.  I  saw  that  the  whole  matter  was  gloomy 
and  oppressive  to  him — that  his  responsibility 
was  as  dark  on  his  mind  as  our  sufferings— 
and  I  took  the  hint  of  his  amused  interest, 
in  order  to  work  out  ways  of  brightening  the 
subject  with  anecdote  and  illustration. 

I  saw  Colonel  Lamont  on  the  morrow,  and 
he  beamed  a  congratulation  on  me.  "  You've 
aroused  his  curiosity,"  he  said.  "You've  in- 
terested him." 

He  had  made  an  appointment  some  days 
ahead;  and  when  I  entered  the  President's 
office  to  keep  that  appointment,  I  found 
Mr.  Cleveland  at  his  desk,  as  if  he  had  not 
moved  in  the  interval,  laboriously  reading 
and  signing  papers  as  before.  It  gave  me 
an  impression  of  immovability,  of  patient 
and  methodical  relentlessness  that  was  dis- 
heartening. 

But  as  soon  as  he  turned  to  me,  I  found 
him  another  man.  He  was  interested,  recep- 
tive, almost  genial.  He  gave  me  an  oppor- 
tunity to  cover  the  whole  ground  of  my  case, 
and  I  went  over  it  step  by  step.  He  showed 
no  emotion  when  I  recited  some  of  the  inci- 
dents of  pathetic  suffering  among  our  people ; 
and  at  first  he  seemed  doubtful  whether  he 
should  be  amused  by  the  humorous  episodes 

78 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

that  I  narrated.  But  I  did  not  wish  merely 
to  amuse  him;  I  was  trying  to  convey  to  his 
mind  (without  saying  so)  that  so  long  as  a 
people  could  suffer  and  laugh  too,  they  could 
never  be  overcome  by  the  mere  reduplication 
of  their  sufferings.  He  looked  squarely  at 
me,  with  a  most  determined  front,  when  I  told 
him  that  the  Mormons  would  be  ground  to 
powder  before  they  would  yield.  "They 
can't  yield,"  I  warned  him.  "They're  like 
the  passengers  on  a  train  going  with  a  mad 
speed  down  a  dangerous  grade.  For  any 
of  them  to  attempt  to  jump  is  simple  destruc- 
tion. They  can  only  pray  to  Providence  to 
help  them.  But  if  that  train  were  to  be 
brought  to  a  stop  at  some  station  where 
they  could  alight  with  anything  like  self- 
respect,  there  would  be  many  of  them  glad 
to  get  off — even  though  the  train  had  not 
arrived  at  its  'revealed'  destination." 

I  do  not  remember — and  if  I  did,  it  would 
be  tedious  to  relate — the  exact  sequence  and 
progression  of  argument  in  this  interview 
and  the  dozen  others  that  succeeded  it.  Mr. 
Cleveland  became  more  and  more  interested 
in  the  Mormon  people,  their  family  life,  their 
religion,  and  their  politics.  He  was  as  pains- 
taking in  acquiring  information  about  them 
as  he  was  in  performing  all  the  other  duties 
of  his  office.  I  might  have  been  discouraged 
by  the  number  and  apparent  ineffectiveness 
of  my  interviews  with  him,  had  not  Colonel 

79 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Lament  kept  me  informed  of  the  growth  of 
the  President's  good  feeling  and  of  his  genu- 
inely paternal  interest  in  the  people  of  Utah. 
It  became  more  than  a  personal  desire  with 
Mr.  Cleveland  to  benefit  politically  by  a 
settlement  of  the  Mormon  troubles,  if  indeed 
he  had  ever  had  such  a  desire.  His  humanity 
was  enlisted,  his  conscience  appealed  to. 

He  asked  me,  once,  if  I  knew  anything  of 
Mr.  Sandford,  and  I  replied  that  I  knew  him 
and  believed  in  him.  He  told  me,  at  last, 
that  he  was  going  to  appoint  Mr.  Sandford 
Chief  Justice  of  Utah,  and  added  significantly, 
"  I  suppose  he  will  get  in  touch  with  the  situa- 
tion. ' '  I  accepted  this  remark  as  a  permission 
to  confer  with  Mr.  Sandford,  and  I  journeyed 
to  New  York  to  see  him  and  to  renew  the 
understanding  I  had  with  him. 

He  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  on  the  9th 
day  of  July,  1888,  and — as  the  Mormon  people 
expressed  it — "the  backbone  of  the  raid  was 
broken."  On  August  26,  1888,  he  arrived 
in  Salt  Lake  City.  On  September  17,  my 
father  came  before  him  in  court  and  pleaded 
guilty  to  two  indictments  charging  him  with 
"unlawful  cohabitation."  He  was  fined  $450 
and  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  days.  His  example 
was  followed  by  a  number  of  prominent 
Mormons,  including  Francis  Marion  Lyman, 
who  is  today  the  President  of  the  Quorum 
of  the  twelve  Apostles  and  next  in  rank  for 

80 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  Presidency.  It  is  true  that  not  many 
cases,  relatively  speaking,  came  to  Justice 
Sandford;  but  the  leader  whom  the  authori- 
ties were  most  eager  to  subjugate  under 
Federal  power  was  judged  and  sentenced; 
and  the  effect,  both  on  the  country  and  on  the 
Mormon  people,  was  all  that  we  had  expected. 

There  are  memories  in  a  man's  life  that 
have  a  peculiar  value.  One  such,  to  me,  is 
the  picture  I  have  in  mind  of  my  father  under- 
going his  penitentiary  sentence,  wearing  his 
prison  clothes  with  an  unconsciousness  that 
makes  me  still  feel  a  pride  in  the  power  of  the 
human  soul  to  rise  superior  to  the  deformities 
of  circumstance.  Charles  Wilcken  (whom 
I  have  described  driving  us  to  Bountiful)  was 
visiting  him  one  day  in  the  prison  office,  when 
a  guard  entered  with  his  hat  on.  Wilcken 
snatched  it  from  his  head.  "Never  enter 
his  presence,"  he  said,  "without  taking  it  off." 
And  the  guard  never  did  again.  ...  I  salute 
the  memory.  I  come  to  it  with  my  head 
bare  and  my  back  stiffened.  I  see  in  that 
calm  face  the  possibilities  of  the  human  spirit. 
He  was  a  manl 

He  spent  his  time,  there,  as  he  would  have 
spent  it  elsewhere,  writing,  conferring  with 
the  agents  of  his  authority,  planning  for  his 
people.  I  saw  he  was  aware  that  he  would 
emerge  from  his  imprisonment  a  free  man, 
personally,  but  still  enslaved  by  the  conditions 
of  the  community ;  and  I  knew  that  he  would 

81 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

use  his  freedom  to  free  the  others.  I  knew 
that  he  had  accepted  his  sentence  with  this 
end  in  view.  In  plain  words,  I  knew  now — 
though  he  never  said  so — that  he  was  looking 
toward  the  necessary  recession  from  the  doc- 
trine of  polygamy,  and  that  he  may  have 
counted  on  the  spectacle  of  his  imprisonment 
to  help  prepare  his  people  for  a  general  sub- 
mission to  the  law. 

With  the  entry  of  these  leaders  into  prison, 
the  Mormons  felt  for  them  a  warmer  admira- 
tion, a  deeper  reverence;  but  it  was  mingled 
with  a  gratitude  to  the  nation  for  the  leniency 
of  the  court  and  an  awed  sense,  too,  of  the 
power  of  the  civil  law.  President  Woodruff 
secretly  and  tentatively  withdrew  his  neces- 
sary permission,  as  head  of  the  Church,  to  the 
solemnization  of  any  more  plural  marriages; 
and  he  ordered  the  demolition  of  the  Endow- 
ment House  in  which  such  marriages  had  been 
chiefly  celebrated.  Many  of  the  non-Mormons, 
who  had  despaired  of  any  solution  of  the 
troubles  in  Utah,  now  began  to  hope.  The 
country  had  been  impoverished ;  the  Mormons 
had  been  deprived  of  much  of  their  substance 
and  financial  vigor;  and  reasons  of  business 
prudence  among  the  Gentiles  weighed  against 
a  continuance  of  proscription.  Some  of  them 
distrusted  the  motives  of  their  own  leaders 
more  than  they  did  the  Mormon  people. 
Some  were  weary  of  the  quarrel.  For  humane 
reasons,  for  business  reasons,  for  the  sake 

82 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  young  Utah,  it  was  argued  that  the  perse- 
cution should  end. 

But  in  the  years  1888  and  1889,  thousands 
of  newcomers  arrived  in  Utah  with  a  strong 
antagonism  to  the  religion  and  the  political 
authority  of  the  Mormon  Church;  and,  with 
the  growth  of  Gentile  population,  there  came 
a  natural  determination  on  their  part  to 
obtain  control  of  the  local  governments  of 
cities  and  counties.  In  opposing  this  move- 
ment, the  power  of  the  Church  was  again 
solidified.  By  1889,  the  Gentiles  had  taken 
the  city  governments  of  Ogden  and  Salt  Lake 
City,  had  elected  members  of  the  legislature 
in  Salt  Lake  County,  and  had  carried  the 
passage  of  a  Public  School  Bill,  against  the 
timid  and  secret  opposition  of  the  Church. 
President  Cleveland  had  been  defeated  and 
succeeded  by  President  Harrison;  and  Chief 
Justice  Sandford  had  been  removed  and  Chief 
Justice  Zane  reinstated.  (He  did  not  ad- 
judicate with  his  previous  rigor,  however, — 
because  of  the  success  of  Justice  Sandford 's 
policy  of  leniency.)  The  Church  made  no 
move  publicly  to  repudiate  polygamy,  and 
its  silent  attitude  of  defiance,  in  this  regard, 
gave  a  battle  cry  to  all  its  enemies. 

The  crisis  was  precipitated  by  a  movement 
that  had  begun  in  the  territory  of  Idaho, 
where  the  Mormons  had  been  disfranchised 
by  means  of  a  test  oath — (a  provision  still 
remaining  in  the  Idaho  state  constitution, 

83 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

but  now  nullified  by  the  political  power  of 
the  Mormon  leaders  in  Salt  Lake  City.)  A 
bill,  known  as  the  Cullom-Struble  bill,  was 
introduced  at  Washington,  to  do  in  Utah 
what  had  been  done  in  Idaho. 

The  Church  was  then  directed  by  President 
Woodruff  and  his  two  Councillors,  George  Q. 
Cannon  and  Joseph  F.  Smith.  But  President 
Woodruff  was  as  helpless  in  the  political  world 
as  a  nun.  He  was  a  gentle,  earnest  old  man, 
patiently  ingenuous  and  simple-minded,  with 
a  faith  in  the  guidance  of  Heaven  that  was 
only  greater  than  my  father's  because  it  was 
unmixed  with  any  earthly  sagacity.  He  had 
the  mind,  and  the  appearance,  of  a  country 
preacher,  and  even  when  he  was  "  on  the 
underground  "  he  used  to  do  his  daily  "  stint " 
of  farm  labor,  secretly,  either  at  night  or  in 
the  very  early  morning.  He  was  a  successful 
farmer  (born  in  Connecticut),  of  a  Yankee 
shrewdness  and  industry.  He  recognized 
that  in  order  to  get  a  crop  of  wheat,  it  was 
necessary  to  do  something  more  than  trust 
in  the  Lord.  But  in  administering  the  affairs 
of  the  Church,  he  seemed  to  have  no  such 
sophistication. 

I  can  see  him  yet,  at  the  meetings  of  the 
Presidency,  opening  his  mild  blue  eyes  in 
surprised  horror  at  a  report  of  some  new 
danger  threatening  us.  "My  conscience! 
My  conscience!"  he  would  cry.  "Is  that  so, 
brother!"  When  he  was  asiured  that  it  was 

84 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

so,  he  would  say,  resignedly:  ''The  Lord 
will  look  after  us ! "  And  then,  after  a  silence, 
turning  to  his  First  Councillor,  he  would  ask: 
"  What  do  you  think  we  ought  to  do,  Brother 
George  Q.  ?" 

The  Second  Councillor,  Joseph  F.  Smith, 
sat  at  these  meetings,  in  a  saturnine  reserve 
and  silence,  either  nursing  his  concealed 
thought  or  having  none.  When  a  decision 
had  been  suggested,  he  was  appealed  to  and 
added  his  assent.  It  always  seemed  to  me 
that  he  was  sulkily  sleepy ;  but  this  impression 
may  have  come  from  the  contrast  of  the  First 
Councillor's  mental  alertness  and  the  bright 
cheerfulness  of  the  President — who  never, 
to  my  knowledge,  showed  the  slightest  bitter- 
ness against  anybody.  President  Woodruff 
believed  that  all  the  persecutions  of  the  Mor- 
mons were  due  to  the  Devil's  envy  of  the 
Lord's  power  as  it  showed  itself  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Mormon  Church:  and  he 
assumed  that  the  Gentiles  did  the  work  they 
were  tempted  to  do  against  us,  because  the 
Holy  Spirit  had  not  yet  ousted  the  evil  from 
their  souls.  He  had  no  fear  of  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  Church,  because  he  had  no 
fear  of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  God.  When- 
ever he  could  escape  for  a  day  from  the  worldly 
duties  of  his  office,  he  went  fishing! 

When  the  progress  of  the  Cullom-St ruble 
bill  began  to  make  its  threatening  advance, 
my  father  went  secretly  to  Washington;  and 

85 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

a  short  time  afterwards,  word  came  to  me  in 
Ogden,  through  the  Presidency,  that  he  wished 
me  to  arrange  my  business  affairs  for  a  long 
absence  from  Utah,  and  follow  him  to  the 
capital. 

I  found  him  there,  in  the  office  of  Delegate 
John  T.  Caine  of  Utah — the  cluttered  office 
of  a  busy  man — and  he  explained,  composedly, 
why  he  had  sent  for  me.  The  Cullom-St ruble 
bill  had  been  favorably  considered  by  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Territories,  and  the 
disfranchisement  of  all  the  Mormons  of  Utah 
seemed  imminent.  Every  argument,  political 
or  legal,  had  been  used  against  the  measure, 
in  vain.  Since  I,  a  non-polygamous  Mormon, 
would  be  disfranchised  if  the  bill  became  law, 
he  thought  I  might  be  a  good  advocate  against 
it.  He  said:  "I  have  not  appeared  in  the 
matter.  None  of  our  friends  know  that  I  am 
here.  If  it  were  known,  it  might  only  increase 
our  difficulties.  Say  nothing  of  it.  We  have 
been  at  a  disadvantage  with  a  Republican 
administration  because  most  of  our  promi- 
nent men  are  Democrats.  You  were  so 
effective  with  the  Democrats,  let  us  see  what 
you  can  do  now  with  your  own  party  friends." 

After  taking  his  advice,  I  went  to  see  Sena- 
tor Henry  M.  Teller,  of  Colorado,  who  was  a 
friend  of  my  father  and  of  the  Mormon  people. 
He  admitted  that  the  situation  was  desperate. 
He  proposed  that  I  should  speak  before  the 
committees  of  both  houses;  they  might  listen 

86 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  me  as  a  Republican  who  had  no  official 
rank  in  the  Church  and  no  political  authority. 
He  offered  to  introduce  me  to  any  of  the 
Senators  and  members  of  Congress,  but  ad- 
vised that  I  should  rather  go  unintroduced, 
without  influence,  and  make  my  appeal  as  a 
private  citizen. 

This  sounded  to  me  depressingly  like  the 
call  to  lead  a  " forlorn  hope."  I  reported  to 
my  father  again,  and  was  not  altogether  re- 
assured by  a  tranquility  which  he  seemed  to 
be  able  to  maintain  in  the  face  of  any  despera- 
tion. Other  agencies  of  the  Church  had 
reached  the  end  of  their  resources.  There 
was  no  help  in  sight.  And  I  went,  at  last, 
to  throw  our  case  upon  the  mercy  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  James  G.  Elaine,  my 
father's  friend,  the  friend  of  our  people,  the 
statesman  whom  I — in  common  with  millions 
of  other  Americans — regarded  with  a  rever- 
ence that  approached  idolatry. 

He  received  me  in  the  long  room  of  the 
Secretary's  apartments,  standing,  a  striking 
figure  in  black,  against  the  rich  and  heavy 
background  of  the  official  furnishing.  He  was 
very  pale — unhealthily  so — perhaps  with  the 
progress  of  the  disease  of  which  he  was  to 
die  in  so  short  a  time.  In  contrast  with  his 
usual  brilliancy  of  mind,  he  seemed  to  me,  at 
first,  depressed  and  quiet — with  a  kindly 
serenity  of  manner,  at  once  gracious,  and 
intimate,  but  masterful. 

87 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

He  was  instantly  and  deeply  interested  in 
what  I  had  to  say;  he  seated  himself — on  a 
sofa,  near  the  embrasure  of  a  window — mo- 
tioned me  to  bring  a  chair  to  his  side,  and 
heard  me  in  an  erect  attitude  of  thoughtful 
attention,  re-assuring  me  now  and  then  by 
reaching  out  to  lay  a  hand  on  my  knee  when  he 
saw  from  my  hesitancy  that  I  feared  I  might 
be  too  candid  in  my  confidences;  and  the 
look  of  his  eye  and  the  touch  of  his  hand  were 
as  if  he  said:  "I'm  your  friend.  Anything 
you  may  say  is  perfectly  safe  with  me." 

I  told  him  of  my  father's  imprisonment. 
"It  is  dreadful,"  he  said.  "You  shock  me 
to  the  soul."  He  spoke  of  their  friendship, 
of  his  admiration  for  my  father's  work  in 
Congress,  of  his  personal  regard  for  the  man 
himself.  "Of  course,"  he  said,  "I  have  no 
sympathy  with  your  peculiar  marriage  sys- 
tem, and  I'll  never  be  able  to  understand 
how  a  man  like  your  father  could  enter  it." 
I  reminded  him  that  my  father  believed  it  a 
system  revealed  and  ordained  by  God.  "I 
know,"  he  replied.  "That  is  what  they  say. 
And  I  suppose  they  have  scriptural  warrant 
for  polygamy.  But  it  is  a  thing  that  would 
be  'more  honored  in  the  breach  than  the  ob- 
servance/ Tell  me,  is  the  rule  of  the  Church 
absolute  over  you  younger  men  ? " 

I  told  him  that  it  was,  in  respect  of  political 
control;  that  the  situation  in  Utah  had  placed 
us  where  there  was  no  possibility  of  com- 

88 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

promise;    that  we  must  be  of,  with,  and  for 
our  own  people,  or  against  them. 

He  asked  me  whether  I  intended  to  address 
myself  to  the  President.  I  replied,  "  Not  yet " 
— since  the  bills  were  still  pending  in  Congress 
and  were  not  being  urged  from  the  White 
House.  He  seemed  pleased.  As  I  afterwards 
learned,  there  was  a  strong  rivalry  between 
the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  State ;  and 
though  I  knew  that  Mr.  Elaine's  interest  in 
Utah  was  almost  wholly  one  of  responsible 
statesmanship,  warmed  by  a  personal  kind- 
liness for  our  people,  still  it  remains  a  fact 
that  he  expected  the  support  of  the  Utah 
Republican  delegation  in  the  convention  of 
1892,  and  that  it  had  been  promised  him  by 
national  Republicans  who  were  now  laboring 
at  Washington  in  our  behalf. 

He  encouraged  me  with  an  almost  intimate 
emotion  of  pity  and  friendliness;  and  I  felt 
the  largeness  of  the  man  as  much  in  the 
warmth  of  his  humanity  as  in  the  breadth  of 
his  view.  He  approved  of  my  appearing 
before  the  committees.  "Go  and  tell  them 
your  own  story,  yourself,"  he  said.  "Make 
your  plea  independently  of  all  the  formal  and 
official  arguments  that  have  been  used.  These 
have  been  exhausted.  They  have  been  in- 
effective. We  must  use  the  personal  and" 
he  added  it  significantly — "the  political  ap- 
peal. If  you  find  difficulty,  let  me  know. 
I  shall  not  be  idle  in  your  behalf.  If  you  meet 

89 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

any  insuperable  obstacle,   I'll  see  if  I  can't 
help  you  run  over  it." 

He  rose  to  terminate  the  interview.  He 
looked  at  me  with  a  smile.  "'The  Lord 
giveth,'  "  he  said,  "'and  the  Lord  taketh 
away.'  Wouldn't  it  be  possible  for  your 
people  to  find  some  way — without  disobedi- 
ence to  the  commands  of  God — to  bring 
yourselves  into  harmony  with  the  law  and 
institutions  of  this  country?  Believe  me, 
it's  not  possible  for  any  people  as  weak  in 
numbers  as  yours,  to  set  themselves  up  as 
superior  to  the  majesty  of  a  nation  like  this. 
We  may  succeed,  this  time,  in  preventing 
your  disf ranchisement ;  but  nothing  perma- 
nent can  be  done  until  you  'get  into  line.'  ' 

He  accompanied  me  toward  the  door,  giving 
me  friendly  messages  of  regard  to  deliver  to 
my  father.  He  put  his  arm  around  my 
shoulders,  at  last,  and  said:  "You  may  tell 
your  father  for  me — as  I  tell  you,  young  man — 
you  shall  not  be  harmed,  this  time." 

I  parted  from  him  with  an  almost  speech- 
less relief  and  gratitude,  and  hurried  to  my 
father  with  the  news  of  hope.  I  had  not  told 
Mr.  Blaine  that  he  was  in  Washington;  for, 
without  feeling  that  he  saw  himself  marked 
by  his  imprisonment,  I  was  aware  that  his 
friends  might  pity  him  for  it,  if  they  did  not 
condemn  him;  and  neither  sentiment  (I  knew) 
was  he  of  the  personal  temper  to  encounter. 

I  told  him  every  detail  of  my  talk  with 

90 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  Secretary  of  State;  he  heard  me,  silently, 
meditatively.  When  I  concluded  with  Mr. 
Elaine's  assurance  that  we  should  not  be 
harmed  "  this  time,"  but  must  "  get  into  line," 
he  looked  up  at  me  with  a  significant  steadi- 
ness of  eye.  "President  Woodruff,"  he  said, 
"has  been  praying.  .  .  .  He  thinks  he  sees 
some  light.  .  .  .  You  are  authorized  to  say 
that  something  will  be  done." 

I  asked  no  question.  His  gaze  conveyed 
assurance,  but  forbade  inquiry.  I  had  to 
understand,  without  being  told,  that  the 
Church  was  preparing  to  concede  a  recession 
from  the  doctrine  of  polygamy. 

With  this  assurance  to  aid  me,  I  began  the 
work  of  reaching  the  committees — warm 
work  in  a  Washington  summer,  but  hopeful 
in  the  new  prospect  of  a  lasting  success.  The 
bill  for  disfranchisement  had  been  reported 
out  by  the  committees  and  was  on  the  calen- 
dar for  passage.  It  was  necessary  to  have 
the  question  reopened  before  the  committees 
for  argument.  In  soliciting  the  opportunity 
of  a  re-hearing,  from  the  Chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee,  Senator  Orville  H.  Platt, 
of  Connecticut,  I  made  my  argument  in  a 
private  conversation  with  him  in  his  rooms 
in  the  Arlington  Hotel.  When  I  had  done, 
he  chewed  his  cigar  a  moment,  looked  at  me 
quizically,  and  asked:  "Do  you  know  Abbot 
R.  Heywood,  of  Ogden?" — and,  as  he  asked 
it,  he  drew  a  letter  from  his  pocket. 

91 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  replied  that  I  knew  Mr.  Heywood 
well. 

"  I  have  a  letter  here  from  him,  on  this  same 
subject,"  he  said.  "Tell  me.  What  kind 
of  man  is  he?  And  to  what  extent  do  you 
think  I  ought  to  depend  on  his  views  ? " 

I  was  never  more  tempted  in  my  life  to 
tell  a  lie.  I  knew  Mr.  Heywood  to  be  a  man 
of  truth  and  high  ideals;  but  he  had  been 
Chairman  of  the  Anti-Church  party  in  Weber 
County,  and  he  had  been  one  of  the  Gentile 
leaders  for  several  years.  I  knew  the  intensity 
of  his  feelings  against  the  rule  of  the  Church 
in  politics  and  the  Mormon  attitude  of  de- 
fiance to  the  law.  I  was  sure  that  he  would 
be  strong  in  his  demand  for  the  passage  of  the 
disfranchisement  act. 

I  hesitated  a  moment.  Senator  Platt  was 
watching  me.  Then,  with  a  resolve  that  our 
cause  must  stand  or  fall  by  the  truth,  I  said: 
"  Mr.  Heywood  is  a  man  of  integrity.  I  think 
he  would  write  exactly  what  he  believed  to  be 
true.  But  you  know,  Senator,  intense  feeling 
in  politics  sometimes  sways  a  man's  judgment. 
In  view  of  Mr.  Hey  wood's  long  controversy, 
I  hope  that  if  he  has  taken  a  view  adverse  to 
mine,  his  antagonism  may  be  mitigated  in 
your  mind  by  your  own  knowledge  of  human 
feelings." 

Senator  Platt  held  out  the  letter  to  me. 
"You've  won  your  motion  for  a  re-hearing," 
he  said.  "  I  think  we  may  be  able  to  get  the 

92 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

truth  out  of  you.  We  have  not  always  had 
it  in  this  Utah  question.  Read  that." 

I  read  it.  It  was  Mr.  Heywood's  solemn 
protest,  as  an  American  citizen — on  behalf 
of  himself  and  the  other  members  of  the  per- 
functory Republican  Committee  of  his  County 
— against  the  wholesale  disfranchisement  of 
the  Mormons,  on  the  ground  that  it  would 
only  delay  a  progressive  American  settlement 
of  the  territory! 

Then  I  went  to  the  other  members  of  the 
Senate  committee  privately,  and  told  them 
that  the  Mormon  Church  was  about  to  make 
a  concession  concerning  its  doctrine  of  polyg- 
amy. I  told  them  so  in  confidence,  pointing 
out  the  necessity  of  secrecy,  since  to  make 
public  the  news  of  such  a  recession,  in  advance, 
would  be  to  prevent  the  Church  from  author- 
izing it.  Not  one  of  the  Senators  betrayed 
the  trust.  I  was  less  confidential  with  the 
members  of  the  House  Committee,  because 
I  realized  that  nothing  could  be  done  against 
us  unless  the  bill  passed  the  Senate.  But  I 
gave  the  news  of  the  Church's  reconsidera- 
tion of  its  attitude  to  Colonel  G.  W.  R.  Dorsey, 
the  member  from  Nebraska,  and  he  used  his 
influence  to  get  me  a  rehearing  from  the  House 
Committee.  Finally  I  appeared  once  before 
each  committee,  and  argued  our  case  at 
length.  The  bills  did  not  become  law.  Aided 
by  Mr.  Elaine's  powerful  friendship,  we  were 
saved  "for  the  time.  " 

93          • 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

It  remained  to  make  our  safety  permanent, 
and  I  took  train  for  Utah,  on  my  father's  coun- 
sel, to  see  President  Woodruff.  I  had  given 
my  word  that  "something  was  to  be  done." 
I  went  to  plead  that  it  should  be  done — and 
done  speedily. 


94 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   MANIFESTO 

I  found  him  in  the  office  of  the  Presidency — 
in  the  little  one-story  house  that  I  have  de- 
scribed in  my  early  interview  with  Joseph  F. 
Smith — and  he  received  me  with  the  gracious 
affectionateness  of  a  fatherly  old  man.  He 
asked  me,  almost  at  once:  "Wlidt  are  they 
going  to  do  to  us  in  Washington?" 

" President  Woodruff,"  I  replied,  "we've 
been  spared — temporarily.  The  axe  will  not 
fall  for  a  few  moments.  It  depends  on  our- 
selves, now,  whether  it  shall  fall  or  not." 

"  Come  into  the  other  room,"  he  said,  under 
his  voice,  in  an  eager  confidentiality,  like  a 
child  with  a  secret.  And  pattering  along 
ahead  of  me,  quick  on  his  feet,  he  signed  to 
me  to  follow  him — with  little  nods  and  beck- 
onings — into  the  retiring  room  where  I  had 
talked  with  Smith. 

There  he  sat  down,  on  the  edge  of  his  chair, 
his  elbows  supported  on  the  broad  arms, 
leaning  forward,  partly  bowed  with  his  age, 
and  partly  with  an  intentness  of  curiosity 
that  glittered  innocently  in  his  guileless  eyes. 
A  dear  old  character!  Sweet  in  his  senti- 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ments,  sweet  in  his  language,  sweet  in  the 
expression  of  his  face. 

I  told  him,  in  detail,  of  the  events  in  Wash- 
ington, and  of  the  men  who  had  helped  us 
in  them — particularly  of  Mr.  Blaine,  who  was 
apparently  a  new  character  in  his  experience, 
and  of  Senator  Orville  H.  Platt,  in  whom  he 
discovered  an  almost  neighborly  interest 
when  I  told  him  that  the  Senator  came  from 
Connecticut,  his  native  state.  I  warned  him 
that  the  passage  of  the  measure  of  disfran- 
chisement  had  been  no  more  than  retarded. 
I  pointed  out  the  fatal  consequences  for  the 
community  if  the  bill  should  ever  become 
law — the  fatal  consequences  for  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  if  the  non-polygamous  Mormons, 
deprived  of  their  votes,  were  ever  left  unable 
to  control  the  administration  of  local  govern- 
ment. I  repeated  the  promise  that  my 
father  had  authorized  me  to  carry  to  the 
Senators  and  Congressmen  who  still  had  the 
Cullom-Struble  bill  in  hand ;  and  I  emphasized 
the  fact  that  because  of  this  promise  the  bill 
had  been  held  back — with  the  certainty  that 
it  would  never  become  law  if  we  met  the  nation 
half  way. 

I  was  watching"  him  to  see  if  he  sensed  the 
point  I  wished  him  to  get.  When  I  touched 
the  matter  of 'my  father's  promise,  his  face 
became  softly  reverent;  and  when  I  had 
done — looking  at  me  without  a  trace  of  cun- 
ning in  his  benignity,  with  an  expression, 

96 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

rather,  of  exalted  innocence  and  faith, — he 
said:  " Brother  Frank,  I  have  been  making 
it  a  matter  of  prayer.  I  have  wrestled 
mightily  with  the  Lord.  And  I  think  I  see 
some  light." 

In  order  that  there  might  be  no  misunder- 
standing, I  put  into  plainer  words  what  I 
meant  and  what  the  prominent  men  in  Wash- 
ington had  been  led  to  look  for:  since,  by 
a  "revelation"  of  the  Church  we  were  ordered 
to  give  obedience  to  the  government  of  the 
nation,  and  since  we  had  exhausted  all  our 
legal  defences,  it  was  hoped  that  the  Prophet, 
Seer,  and  Revelator  of  the  Church  would 
find  a  way,  under  the  guidance  of  God,  to 
bring  our  people  into  conformity  with  the 
law. 

As  he  accepted  this  calmly,  I  added:  "To 
be  very  plain  with  you,  President  Woodruff, 
our  friends  expect,  and  the  country  will 
insist,  that  the  Church  shall  yield  the  practice 
of  plural  marriage." 

His  eyelids  quivered  a  little,  but  he  showed 
no  other  sign  of  flinching.  I  saw  that  the 
counsels  of  his  advisers  and  the  comfort  that 
he  had  derived  from  his  prayers  had  prepared 
him  for  an  immolation  that  was  more  serious 
to  him  than  any  personal  sacrifice  that  he 
could  make.  He  said  sadly:  "I  had  hoped 
we  wouldn't  have  to  meet  this  trouble  this 
way.  You  know  what  it  means  to  our  people. 
I  had  hoped  that  the  Lord  might  open  the 

97 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

minds  of  the  people  of  this  nation  to  the  truth, 
so  that  they  might  be  converted  to  the  ever- 
lasting covenant.  Our  prophets  have  suffered 
like  those  of  old,  and  I  thought  that  the  perse- 
cutions of  Zion  were  enough — that  they  would 
bring  some  other  reward  than  this. "  If  I  had 
been  the  bearer  of  a  new  edict  of  proscription, 
I  think  he  could  not  have  been  more  pro- 
foundly oppressed  by  the  sense  of  his  respon- 
sibility. "  Did  your  father  tell  you, ' '  he  asked, 
"that  I  had  been  seeking  the  mind  of  the 
Lord?" 

I  replied  that  he  had. 

He  reflected  silently.  "I  shall  talk  with 
you  again  about  it,"  he  said,  at  last.  "I 
hope  the  Lord  will  make  the  way  plain  for 
his  people." 

I  do  not  wish  to  idealize  the  polygamous 
relation — but  in  monogamy  a  man  is  not  per- 
secuted for  his  marriage,  and  sometimes  he 
does  not  appreciate  the  tie.  In  polygamy, 
the  men  and  women  alike  had  been  compelled 
to  suffer  on  its  account  by  the  grim  trials  of 
the  life  itself  and  by  the  hatred  of  all  civiliza- 
tion arrayed  against  it.  They  had  grown  to 
value  their  marriage  system  by  what  it  had 
cost  them.  They  had  been  driven  by  the 
contempt  of  the  world  to  argue  for  its  sanc- 
tity, to  live  up  to  their  declarations,  and  to 
raise  it  in  their  esteem  to  what  it  professed 
to  be,  the  celestial  order  that  prevailed  in 
the  Heavens!  I  knew,  as  well  as  President 

98 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Woodruff  did,  the  wrench  it  would  give  their 
hearts  to  have  to  abandon,  at  last,  what  they 
had  so  long  suffered  for. 

In  the  days  of  anxious  waiting  that  followed, 
I  saw  Joseph  F.  Smith  and  sounded  him  for 
any  hint  of  progress.  He  said:  "I'm  sure 
I  don't  know  what  can  be  done.  Your 
father  talked  with  President  Woodruff  and 
me  before  he  went  to  Washington,  but  I'm 
sure  I  can't  see  how  we  can  do  anything." 
When  my  father  returned  home,  I  went  to 
him  many  times — without  however  learning 
anything  definite.  I  knew  that  the  men  in 
Washington  would  demand  some  tangible 
evidence  of  our  good  faith  before  Congress 
should  reconvene;  and  I  repeatedly  urged 
the  necessity  of  action. 

At  length  he  sent  me  word,  in  Ogden,  that 
President  Woodruff  wished  to  confer  with  me, 
and  he  suggested  that  it  would  be  permissible 
for  me  to  speak  my  opinions  freely.  I  hast- 
ened to  Salt  Lake  City,  to  the  offices  of  the 
Presidency.  President  Woodruff  took  me 
into  a  private  room  and  read  me  his  "  mani- 
festo." 

It  was  the  same  that  was  issued  on  Sep- 
tember 24,  1890,  and  ratified  by  a  General 
Conference  of  the  Mormon  Church  on  October 
6,  following.  It  was  the  proclamation  that 
freed  the  oppressed  of  Utah;  for,  by  the 
subsequent  "covenant" — and  its  acceptance 
by  the  Federal  government — the  nation  did 

99 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

but  confirm  their  freedom  and  accord  them 
their  constitutional  rights.  Here,  shaking 
in  the  hand  of  age,  was  a  sheet  of  paper  by 
which  the  future  of  a  half  million  people  was 
to  be  directed;  and  that  simple  old  man  was 
to  speak  through  it,  to  them,  with  the  awful 
authority  of  the  voice  of  God. 

He  told  me  he  had  written  it  himself,  and 
it^certainly  appeared  to  me  to  be  in  his  hand- 
writing. Its  authorship  has  since  been  vari- 
ously attributed.  Some  of  the  present-day 
polygamists  say  that  it  was  I  who  wrote  it. 
Chas.  W.  Penrose  and  George  Reynolds  have 
claimed  that  they  edited  it.  I  presume  that 
as  Mormons,  "in  good  standing,"  believing 
in  the  inspiration  of  the  Prophet',  they  appre- 
ciate the  blasphemy  of  their  claim! 

I  found  it  disappointingly  mild.  It  denied 
that  the  Church  had  been  solemnizing  any 
plural  marriages  of  late,  and  advised  the 
faithful  "to  refrain  from  contracting  any 
marriages  forbidden  by  the  law  of  the  land." 
In  spite  of  this  mildness,  President  Woodruff 
asked  me  whether  I  thought  the  Mormons 
would  support  the  revelation — whether  they 
would  accept  it. 

I  replied  that  there  could  be  no  proper 
anxiety  on  that  point.  The  majority  of  the 
Mormon  people  were  ready  for  such  a  message. 
It  might  be  very  much  stronger  without 
arousing  resistance.  With  the  exception  of 
the  comparatively  few  men  and  women  who 

100 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

were  living  in  polygamy,  the  community 
would  accept  it  gratefully.  Rather,  I  made 
bold  to  say,  my  anxiety  was  as  to  whether 
the  nation  would  believe  that  such  an  equiv- 
ocally-worded document  meant  an  absolute 
recession  from  the  practice  of  plural  marriage. 

It  was  plain  that  his  advisers  had  not 
pointed  out  this  danger  to  him.  He  asked 
me  how  I  thought  the  nation  would  take  it. 

I  asked  him,  point  blank,  whether  it  meant 
an  absolute  recession  from  polygamy. 

He  answered  that  it  did. 

Then  (I  said)  with  such  an  interpretation 
of  it,  and  a  formal  and  public  acceptance  of 
it  by  the  Church  authorities,  I  did  not  doubt 
that  we  could  convince  the  nation  of  its 
sufficiency.  I  reminded  him — as  I  am  now 
glad  to  remember — that  the  word  of  the 
Mormon  people  had  passed  current  in  the 
political  and  commercial  circles  of  the  country ; 
that  I  had  several  times  been  the  bearer  of 
messages  from  them  to  prominent  men;  that 
we  had  been  taken  on  faith  and  the  faith 
had  been  always  vindicated.  Finally,  in 
order  that  I  might  carry  away  no  misappre- 
hension, nor  convey  any,  I  asked  him  if  it 
was  the  intention  of  the  manifesto  to  inhibit 
any  further  plural  marriage  living. 

He  answered,  quaintly:  "Why,  of  course, 
Frank — because  that's  what  they've  been 
persecuting  us  for."  There  was  not  even  a 
shrewdness  in  his  voice  when  he  added :  "  You 

101 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

know  they  didn't  get  our  brethren  in  prison 
for  polygamy,  but  for  living  with  their  plural 


wives." 


Perhaps  no  other  man  in  UtarTcould  have 
said  such  a  thing  without  sarcasm.  The  fact 
was  that  the  United  States  authorities  had 
been  practically  unable  to  prove  a  case  of 
polygamy  (which  was  a  felony)  because  the 
marriage  records  were  concealed  by  the 
Church;  but  they  could  prove  plural  marriage 
living  (a  mere  misdemeanor)  by  repute  and 
circumstance.  It  was  part  of  President 
Woodruff's  unworldliness  that  he  did  not  see 
the  satire  of  his  words;  and  I  was  the  more 
convinced  of  his  good  faith. 

I  was  convinced  also,  by  several  of  his 
remarks,  that  he  had  consulted  with  the 
Church's  attorney,  Mr.  Franklin  S.  Richards; 
and  while  I  trusted  the  President's  unworldly 
faith,  I  trusted  more  the  sagacity  of  his  more 
worldly  advisers.  I  began  to  see,  with  a 
sure  hope,  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  all  our 
miseries. 

Some  days  later  I  was  summoned  to  attend 
a  meeting  of  the  Church  authorities  in  the 
President's  offices;  and  I  knew  that  the  test 
had  come.  The  Church  was  governed  by  the 
Presidency,  composed  of  President  Woodruff 
and  his  two  Councillors,  with  the  Quorum 
of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  the  Presidents  of 
Seventies,  and  the  presiding  Bishopric,  com- 
posed of  three  members.  These  quorums 

102 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

aggregate  twenty-five  men;  and  to  their 
number  may  be  added  the  Chief  Patriarch 
of  the  Church,  making  a  body  of  twenty-six 
general  authorities — the  Hierarchy.  It  was 
from  these  latter  men,  polygamists  and  (I 
feared)  parochial  in  their  ignorance  of  the 
nation  and  their  trust  in  the  protection  of 
their  followers — it  was  from  them  (and  the 
other  practicers  of  polygamy)  that  any  oppo- 
sition would  come  to  the  acceptance  and  pub- 
lication of  the  manifesto. 

They  met — something  less  than  a  score  of 
them,  with  two  or  three  of  their  most  trusted 
advisers — in  one  of  the  general  offices  of  the 
Presidency,  sitting  in  leather  chairs  along  its 
walls,  with  a  sort  of  central  skylight  illumi- 
nating subduedly  the  anxiety  of  their  silent 
faces.  President  Woodruff  and  his  two  Coun- 
cillors entered  to  them;  and  this  insignificant- 
looking  apartment — of  such  tremendous  com- 
munity significance,  because  of  the  memories 
of  its  past — seemed  to  take  on  the  gravity 
of  another  momentous  crisis  in  the  destiny  of 
its  people.  The  portraits  in  oils  of  the 
dead  presidents,  martyrs,  and  prophets  of 
the  Church,  looked  down  on  us  from  the 
facade  of  a  little  gallery,  and  caught  my  eyes 
almost  hypnotically  with  the  imperturba- 
bility of ^ their  gaze.  No  word  from  them! 
In  the  midst  of  the  broken  utterance  of  emo- 
tion— when  the  tears  were  wet  on  faces  to 
whose  manliness  tears  were  the  very  sweat 

103 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  martyrdom — I  saw  those  immovable  coun- 
tenances as  placid  as  the  features  of  the  dead. 

President  Woodruff  stood  under  them,  so 
old  and  other-worldly,  that  he  seemed  already 
of  their  circle  rather  than  ours ;  and  he  spoke 
in  a  voice  of  feeling  for  us,  but  with  a  simple 
and  courageous  finality  that  sounded  the 
very  note  of  fate.  He  had  called  the  brethren 
together  (he  said)  to  submit  a  decision  to 
their  consideration,  and  he  desired  from  them 
an  expression  of  their  willingness  to  accept 
and  abide  by  it.  He  knew  what  a  trial  it 
would  be  to  the  "  whole  household  of  Israel." 
"We  have  sought,"  he  said,  "to  live  our 
religion — to  harm  no  one — to  perform  our 
mission  in  this  world  for  the  salvation  of  the 
living  and  the  dead.  We  have  obeyed  the 
principle  of  celestial  marriage  because  it  came 
to  us  from  God.  We  have  suffered  under  the 
rage  of  the  wicked;  we  were  driven  from  our 
homes  into  the  desert;  our  prophets  have 
been  slain,  our  holy  ones  persecuted— and 
it  did  seem  to  me  that  we  were  entitled  to 
the  constitutional  protection  of  the  courts 
in  the  practice  of  our  religion." 

But  the  courts  had  decided  "against  us." 
The  great  men  of  the  nation  were  determined 
to  show  us  no  mercy.  Legislation  was  im- 
pending that  would  put  us  "in  the  power  of 
the  wicked."  Brother  George  Q.  Cannon, 
Brother  John  T.  Caine,  and  the  other  brethren 
who  had  been  in  Washington,  had  found  that 

104 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  situation  of  the  Church  was  critical. 
Brother  Franklin  S.  Richards  had  advised 
him  that  our  last  legal  defence  had  fallen. 
"  In  broken  and  contrite  spirit "  he  had  sought 
the  will  of  the  Lord,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  had 
revealed  to  him  that  it  was  necessary  for  the 
Church  to  relinquish  the  practice  of  that 
principle  for  which  the  brethren  had  been 
willing  to  lay  down  their  lives. 

A  sort  of  ghastly  stillness  accepted  what 
he  said  as  a  confirmation  of  the  worst  fears 
of  the  men  who  had  evidently  come  there  with 
some  knowledge  of  what  they  were  to  hear. 
I  glanced  at  the  faces  of  those  opposite  me. 
A  set  and  staring  pallor  held  them  motionless. 
I  was  conscious  of  a  chill  of  heart  that  seemed 
communicated  to  me  from  them.  My  brother 
Abraham  was  sitting  beside  me;  I  knew  his 
deep  affection  for  his  family;  I  knew  with 
what  a  clutch  of  misery  this  edict  of  separation 
was  crushing  his  hope;  I  felt  myself  growing 
as  pale  and  tense  as  he. 

The  silence  was  broken  by  President  Wood- 
ruff asking  one  of  the  brethren  to  read  the 
manifesto.  When  it  was  concluded,  he  said: 
"The  matter  is  now  before  you.  I  want  you 
to  speak  as  the  Spirit  moves  you." 

There  was  no  reply,  except  a  sort  of  general 
gasp  of  low- voiced  interjections  and  a  little 
buzz  of  whisperings  that  sounded  like  emo- 
tion taking  its  breath.  He  called  on  my  father 
to  speak.  The  First  Councillor  rose  to  make 

105 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

a  statesmanlike  review  of  the  crisis;  and 
I  understood  that  with  his  usual  diplomacy 
he  was  putting  aside  from  him  the  authority 
of  leadership  until  he  could  see  whether  an 
opposition  was  to  develop  that  should  make 
it  necessary  for  him  to  front  it. 

That  opposition  made  a  rustle  of  stirring 
in  the  pause  that  followed.  I  saw  it  in  the 
changed  expressions  of  some  of  the  faces. 
Several  of  the  men — including  my  brother 
Abraham,  and  Joseph  F.  Smith — asked 
whether  the  manifesto  meant  a  cessation  of 
plural  marriages:  whether  no  more  such 
marriages  were  to  be  allowed. 

President  Woodruff  answered  that  it  did; 
that  the  Lord  had  taken  back  the  principle 
from  the  children  of  men  and  that  we  would 
have  no  power  to  restore  it. 

Then  they  asked  whether  it  meant  a  cessa- 
tion of  plural  marriage  living — whether  they 
would  be  required  to  separate  from  the  wives 
whom  they  had  taken  in  the  holy  covenant. 

He  answered,  firmly,  that  it  did;  that  the 
brethren  in  Washington  found  it  imperative; 
that  it  was  the  will  of  the  Lord;  that  we  must 
submit. 

I  saw  their  faces  flush  and  then  slowly 
pale  again — and  the  storm  broke.  One  after 
another  they  rose  and  protested,  hoarsely, 
in  the  voice  of  tears,  that  they  were  willing 
to  suffer  "persecution  unto  death"  rather 
than  to  violate  the  covenants  which  they  had 

106 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

made  "  in  holy  places  "  with  the  women  who 
had  trusted  them.  One  after  another  they 
offered  themselves  for  any  sacrifice  but  this 
betrayal  of  the  women  and  children  to  whom 
they  owed  an  everlasting  faith.  And  a  man- 
lier lot  of  men  never  spoke  in  a  manlier  way. 
Not  a  petty  word  was  uttered.  Their  thought 
was  not  for  themselves.  Their  grief  was  not 
selfish.  Their  protests  had  a  dignity  in 
pathos  that  shook  me  in  spite  of  myself. 

When  they  had  done,  my  father  rose  again 
with  a  face  that  seemed  to  bear  the  marks 
of  their  grief  while  it  repressed  his  own.  He 
dwelt  anew  on  the  long  efforts  of  our  attorney 
and  our  friends  in  Congress  to  resist  what  we 
believed  to  be  unconstitutional  measures  to 
repress  our  practice  of  a  religious  faith.  But 
we  were  citizens  of  a  nation.  We  were  re- 
quired to  obey  its  laws.  And  when  we  found, 
by  the  highest  judicial  interpretation  of  stat- 
ute and  constitution,  that  we  were  without 
grounds  for  our  plea  of  religious  immunity, 
we  had  but  the  alternative  either  of  defying 
the  power  of  the  whole  nation  or  of  submit- 
ting ourselves  to  its  authority.  For  his  part 
he  was  willing  to  do  the  will  of  the  Lord.  And 
since  the  Prophet  of  God,  after  a  long  season 
of  prayer,  had  submitted  this  revelation  as 
the  will  of  the  Lord,  he  was  ready  for  the  sac- 
rifice. The  leaders  of  the  Church  had  no 
right  to  think  of  themselves.  They  must 
remember  how  loyally  the  people  had  sacri- 

107 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ficed  their  substance  and  risked  their  safety 
to  guard  their  brethren  who  were  living  in 
plural  marriage.  Those  brethren  must  not 
be  ungrateful  now.  They  must  not  now 
refuse  to  make  their  sacrifice,  in  answer  to 
the  sacrifices  that  had  been  made  for  them  so 
often.  The  people  had  long  protected  them. 
Now  they  must  protect  the  people. 

Under  the  commanding  persuasion  of  his 
voice  I  saw  the  determination  of  their  resist- 
ance begin  to  falter  and  relax.  President 
Woodruff  called  on  me  to  speak,  and  I  felt 
that  it  was  my  duty  to  represent  the  needs, 
the  hopes,  and  the  opportunities  of  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  the  undistinguished 
mass  who  would  make  no  decision  for  them- 
selves, but  whose  fate  was  trembling  on  the 
event.  I  rose  to  speak  for  them,  with  my 
hand  on  my  brother's  shoulder,  knowing 
that  my  every  word  would  be  a  stab  at  his 
heart,  and  hoping  that  my  grasp  might  be  a 
touch  of  sympathy  to  him — knowing  that  I 
must  urge  these  elders  to  sacrifice  themselves 
and  their  families  for  a  redemption  of  which 
I  was  to  share  the  benefits — but  sustained 
by  the  remembrance  of  the  solemn  pledge 
which  I  had  been  authorized  to  give  in  Wash- 
ington to  honorable  men  who  had  trusted  in 
our  honor — and  strengthened  by  the  thought 
of  all  those  dear  to  me,  whose  sufferings /would 
be  multiplied,  with  no  hope  of  relief,  if  the 
few  would  not  now  yield  to  save  the  many. 

108 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  described  the  situation  as  I  had  seen  it 
in  Washington  and  as  I  knew  it  in  Utah  from 
a  more  intimate  personal  experience  than 
these  leaders  could  have  of  the  sufferings  of 
the  people.  I  told  them  how  cheerfully  and 
bravely  the  non-polygamists  had  borne  the 
brunt  of  protecting  them  in  the  practice  of 
their  faith,  and  yet  how  patient  a  hope  had 
been  always  with  us  that  the  final  demand 
might  not  be  made  upon  us  for  the  sacrifice 
of  a  citizenship  which  we  valued  more  because 
it  shielded  them  than  because  it  armed  us. 

Encouraged  by  the  face  of  President  Wood- 
ruff, I  reminded  them  that  the  sorrow  and  the 
parting,  at  which  they  rebelled,  could  only 
be  for  a  little  breath  of  time,  according  to 
their  faith;  that  by  the  celestial  covenant, 
into  which  they  had  entered,  they  were  as- 
sured that  they  should  have  their  wives  and 
children  with  them  throughout  the  endless 
ages  of  eternity.  The  people  had  given  much 
to  them.  Surely  they  could  yield  the  domestic 
happinesses  of  the  little  remaining  day  of 
life  in  this  world,  in  order  to  save  and  prosper 
those  who  were  not  to  enjoy  their  supreme 
exaltation  of  beatitude  in  the  world  to  come. 

I  had  felt  my  brother  strong  under  my 
hand.  He  rose,  when  I  concluded.  And 
with  a  manful  brevity  he  replied  that  he 
submitted  because  it  was  the  will  of  the  Lord, 
and  because  he  had  no  right  to  interpose  his 
selfish  love  and  yearnings  between  the  people 

109 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  God  and  their  worldly  opportunity.  The 
others  followed.  Not  one  referred  to  the 
equivocal  language  of  the  manifesto  or  ques- 
tioned it.  They  accepted  it — as  it  was  then 
and  afterwards  interpreted — as  a  revelation 
from  God  made  through  the  Prophet  of  the 
Church ;  and  they  subscribed  to  it  as  a  solemn 
covenant,  before  God,  with  the  people  of  the 
nation. 

Joseph  F.  Smith  was  one  of  the  last  to 
speak.  With  a  face  like  wax,  his  hands  out- 
stretched, in  an  intensity  of  passion  that 
seemed  as  if  it  must  sweep  the  assembly,  he 
declared  that  he  had  covenanted,  at  the  altar 
of  God's  house,  in  the  presence  of  his  Father, 
to  cherish  the  wives  and  children  whom  the 
Lord  had  given  him.  They  were  more  to 
him  than  life.  They  were  dearer  to  him  than 
happiness.  He  would  rather  choose  to  stand, 
with  them,  alone — persecuted — proscribed — 
outlawed — to  wait  until  God  in  His  anger 
should  break  the  nation  with  His  avenging 
stroke.  But — 

He  dropped  his  arms.  He  seemed  to  shrink 
in  his  commanding  stature  like  a  man  stricken 
with  a  paralysis  of  despair.  The  tears  came 
to  the  pained  constriction  of  his  eyelids. 

11 1  have  never  disobeyed  a  revelation  from 
God,"  he  said.  "I  cannot — I  dare  not — 


now." 


He  announced — with  his  head  up,  though 
his  body  swayed — that  he  would  accept  and 

110 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

abide  by  the  revelation.  When  he  sank  in 
his  chair  and  covered  his  face  with  his  hands, 
there  was  a  gasp  of  sympathy  and  relief,  as 
if  we  had  been  hearing  the  pain  of  a  man  in 
agony.  And  my  heart  gave  a  great  leap; 
for,  in  these  supreme  moments  of  feeling, 
things  come  to  us  that  are  larger  than  our 
knowledge,  more  splendid  than  our  hopes; 
and  I  saw,  as  if  in  the  blinding  glisten  of  the 
tears  in  my  eyes,  a  radiant  vision  of  our  future, 
an  unselfish  people  freed  from  a  burden  of 
persecution,  a  nation's  forgiveness  born,  a 
grateful  state  created.  I  saw  it — and  I  looked 
at  Smith  and  loved  him  for  it.  I  knew  then, 
as  I  know  now,  that  he  and  those  others  were 
at  this  moment  sincere.  I  knew  that  they 
had  relinquished  what  was  more  dear  to  them 
than  the  breath  of  life.  I  knew  the  appalling 
significance,  to  them,  of  the  promise  which 
they  were  making  to  the  nation.  And  in  all 
the  degraded  after-years,  when  so  many  of 
them  were  guilty  of  breach  of  covenant  and 
base  violation  of  trust,  I  tried  never  to  forget 
that  in  the  hour  of  their  greatest  trial,  they 
had  sacrificed  themselves  for  their  people; 
they  had  suffered  for  the  happiness  of  others; 
they  had  said,  sincerely:  "Not  my  will,  0 
Lord,  but  Thine,  be  done!" 


ill 


CHAPTER  V 

ON  THE  ROAD  TO  FREEDOM 

In  any  discussion  of  the  public  affairs  that 
make  the  subject  matter  of  this  narrative, 
a  line  of  discrimination  must  be  drawn  at 
the  year  1890.  In  that  year  the  Church 
began  a  progressive  course  of  submission  to 
the  civil  law,  and  the  nation  received  each 
act  of  surrender  with  forgiveness.  The  pre- 
vious defiances  of  the  Mormon  people  ceased 
to  give  grounds  for  a  complaint  against  them. 
The  old  harshnesses  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment were  cancelled  by  the  new  generosity 
of  a  placated  nation.  And  neither  party  to 
the  present  strife  in  Utah  should  go  back, 
beyond  the  period  of  this  composition,  to 
dig  up,  from  the  past,  its  buried  wrongs. 

In  relating,  here,  some  of  the  events  of 
1888  and  1889,  I  have  tried  neither  to  justify 
the  Mormons  nor  to  defend  their  prosecutors. 
I  have  wished  merely  to  make  clear  the  situa- 
tion in  Utah,  and  to  introduce  to  you,  in 
advance,  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  distracted 
community,  so  that  you  might  understand 
the  conditions  from  which  the  Mormons 
escaped  by  giving  their  covenant  to  the  nation 
and  be  able  to  judge  of  the  obligations  and 
responsibilities  of  the  men  who  gave  it. 

112 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  have  described  the  promulgation  and 
acceptance  of  "the  manifesto"  with  such 
circumstance  and  detail,  because  of  what 
has  since  occurred  in  Utah.  Let  me  add  that 
some  two  weeks  later  the  General  Conference 
of  the  Church  endorsed  the  President's  pro- 
nouncement as  "authoritative  and  binding." 
And  let  me  point  out  that  it  was  the  first  and 
only  law  of  the  Mormon  Church  ever  so  sus- 
tained by  triple  sanctities—  •"  revealed  "  as  a 
command  from  God,  accepted  by  the  prophets 
in  solemn  fraternity  assembled,  and  ratified 
by  the  vote  of  the  entire  "congregation  of 
Israel"  before  it  was  declared  to  be  binding 
upon  men. 

At  first,  because  of  the  somewhat  indefinite 
promise  of  the  message  itself,  many  of  the 
non-Mormons  of  Utah  remained  suspicious 
and  in  doubt  of  it.  But  it  was  recognized 
by  Judge  Zane,  in  court — on  the  day  following 
the  close  of  the  Conference — as  an  official 
declaration,  "  honest  and  sincere. ' '  The  news- 
papers throughout  the  whole  country  so 
received  it.  The  Church  authorities  sent 
assurances  to  Washington  that  convinced  the 
statesmen,  there,  of  the  completeness  and 
finality  of  the  submission.  And  the  good 
faith  of  the  covenant  was  at  last  admitted  by 
the  non-Mormons  of  Utah  and  endorsed  by 
their  trust.  I  do  not  know  of  any  change  in 
human  affairs — dependent  on  human  will- 
more  speedy,  effective  and  comprehensive 

113 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

than  this  recession.  Within  the  space  of  a 
few  days  a  revolution  was  completed  that  had 
been  sought  by  the  power  of  our  nation  and 
of  the  civilized  world,  for  a  generation,  with 
stripes  and  imprisonment,  death,  confiscation 
and  the  ostracism  of  the  country's  public 
contempt.  It  had  been  obtained,  I  knew, 
chiefly  by  the  sagacity  of  the  First  Councillor 
using  the 'pressure  of  circumstances  to  enforce 
the  persuasions  of  diplomacy.  I  felt  that  a 
miracle  of  change  had  been  brought  to  pass. 
He  had  placed  us  on  the  road  to  freedom; 
and  I  trusted  his  guidance  to  lead  us  to  our 
goal. 

That  goal,  to  me  personally,  was  the  honor 
of  American  citizenship — an  ambition  that 
had  been  an  obsession  with  me  from  my 
earliest  youth.  I  had  never  heard  a  man  on 
a  railroad  train  talk  of  how  he  was  going  to 
vote  in  a  national  election,  without  feeling 
a  pang  of  shamed  envy ;  for  my  lack  of  citizen- 
ship seemed  a  mark  of  inferiority.  The 
patriotic  reading  of  my  boyhood  had  made  the 
American  republic,  to  me,  the  noblest  ad- 
ministration of  freemen  in  the  history  of 
government  and  the  exercise  of  its  franchise 
literally  the  highest  dignity  of  human  privi- 
lege. I  would  have  been  as  proud — I  was 
as  proud  when  the  day  came — to  vote  for  the 
President  of  the  United  States  as  he  could 
have  been  to  take  his  oath  of  office.  I  do 
not  believe  that  any  poor  serf,  escaped  from 

114 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  JN  UTAH 

the  tyranny  of  Russia,  ever  saw  the  American 
shore  with  a  more  grateful  eye  than  I  looked 
to  the  prospect  of  being  admitted,  with  the 
citizens  of  Utah,  into  the  enfranchisement  of 
the  Republic. 

But  it  was  evident  that  the  Church's  reces- 
sion from  polygamy  would  not  be  enough  to 
free  us,  so  long  as  its  control  of  politics  re- 
mained. Its  other  practices  had  flourished 
and  been  sheltered  under  its  political  power; 
and  now  that  the  Church  had  ceased  to  be  a 
lawbreaker,  our  friends  in  Washington  were 
properly  expecting  that  it  would  cease  to 
interfere  with  its  members  in  the  exercise  of 
their  citizenship.  For  this  reason,  when  I 
was  notified  that  I  had  been  selected  as  a 
member  of  the  advisory  committee  of  the 
People's  Party  (the  Church  party) ,  I  went  at 
once  to  my  father  and  told  him  that  I  would 
not  take  the  place;  that  I  intended  to  work, 
personally,  and  through  my  newspaper,  for 
the  political  division  of  Utah  on  the  lines  of 
the  national  parties.  He  held  that  until 
Gentile  solidarity  was  dissolved,  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  divide  the  allegiance  of  the 
Mormons;  but  he  did  not  stand  against  my 
protest;  he  contented  himself — diplomatic- 
ally— with  sending  me  to  consult  with  Presi- 
dent Woodruff  and  Joseph  F.  Smith. 

To  them,  I  argued  that  the  political  eman- 
cipation of  the  Mormon  people  from  ecclesi- 
astical direction  was  as  necessary  as  the 

115 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

recession  from  polygamy  had  been.  We 
must  be  set  free  to  perform  our  duty  to  the 
country  solely  as  citizens  of  the  country, 
before  we  could  expect  to  be  given  the  right 
to  perform  it  at  all.  And,  for  my  part,  the 
only  action  I  would  consent  to  take  as  a 
member  of  the  advisory  committee  of  the 
People's  Party  would  be  to  vote  for  the  dis- 
solution of  the  party. 

President  Woodruff  referred  me  to  my 
father,  and  advised  me  to  be  guided  by  him. 
Joseph  F.  Smith  urged  that  a  division  of  the 
Mormon  people  on  national  party  lines  would 
enable  the  Liberal  (the  Gentile)  party  to 
march  in  between.  I  argued  in  reply  that 
we  must  divide  at  some  time,  and  the  sooner 
the  better,  since  every  year  was  increasing 
the  Gentile  population.  They  would  never 
split  as  long  as  we  remained  solid.  And  if 
we  were  ever  to  be  permitted  to  nationalize 
ourselves,  it  would  not  be  until  we  had  dis- 
solved the  party  organizations  whose  very 
names  were  a  proof  of  the  continued  rule  of 
the  Church  in  politics. 

When  he  had  no  more  arguments  to  ad- 
vance, he  gave  a  reluctant  assent  to  mine. 
I  reported; back  to  my  father  and  he  approved 
of  my  plans.  He  asked  me  humorously  with 
whom  I  expected  to  affiliate,  since  he  knew 
of  no  one  who  was  likely  to  go  with  me;  but 
I  could  see  that  he  was  pleased  with  my 
independence  and  hoped  I  might  succeed 

116 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

in  doing  something  to  break  the  deadlock-grap- 
ple of  Mormon  and  Gentile  that  held  Utah  apart 
from  the  rest  of  the  country  in  politics. 

His  humorous  idea  of  my  undertaking 
gave  its  color  to  my  beginnings.  It  was 
rather  a  spirited  adventure,  as  I  look  back 
upon  it  now.  When  we  organized  a  Repub- 
lican Club  at  Ogden,  my  intimate  friend, 
Ben  E.  Rich,  and  another  friend  named 
Joseph  Belnap,  were  the  only  Mormons,  so 
far  as  I  know,  who  joined  me  in  becoming 
members.  Outside  of  us  three,  I  did  not  know 
of  another  Mormon  Republican  in  the  whole 
territory. 

Indeed,  the  status  of  the  Mormon  people, 
in  their  fancied  relation  to  the  two  great 
parties  of  the  country,  was  almost  identical 
with  that  of  the  people  of  the  South  after 
the  Civil  War.  Practically  every  Mormon 
believed  himself  to  be  a  Democrat.  Among 
the  young  men  of  the  Church  there  had  been 
occasional  attempts  to  form  Democratic 
Clubs.  Mr.  John  T.  Caine,  delegate  in  Con- 
gress from  the  territory,  was  a  Democrat. 
My  father  had  sat  on  the  Democratic  side  of 
the  House.  Almost  all  the  men  who  had 
braved  the  sentiments  of  their  own  states, 
to  speak  for  us  in  Congress,  had  been  Demo- 
crats. And,  of  course,  the  administration 
of  the  laws  that  had  been  so  cruel  to  the  feel- 
ings of  the  Mormons  had  been  in  Republican 
hands. 

117 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Two  years  earlier,  in  Ogden,  I  had  spoken 
in  a  meeting  of  Republicans  that  had  been 
called  to  rejoice  over  the  election  of  Benjamin 
Harrison  to  the  Presidency;  and  I  was  still 
being  taunted  by  my  Mormon  friends  with 
having  clasped  hands  with  "the  persecutors 
of  the  Prophets."  When  I  came  out,  now, 
as  an  advocate  of  Republicanism,  I  was  met 
everywhere  with  this  charge — that  I  had 
joined  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  that  I  was 
assisting  the  persecutors  of  my  father.  The 
fact  that  my  father  approved  of  what  I  was 
doing,  relieved  the  seriousness  of  the  situation 
for  me;  and  the  humorous  assistance  of  Ben 
Rich  in  our  political  evangelism  gave  a  secret 
chuckle  to  many  of  the  incidents  of  our  cam- 
paign. 

We  went  from  town  to  town,  from  district 
to  district,  up  the  mountain  valleys,  across 
the  plains,  into  mining  camps  and  farming 
communities — using  the  meeting-houses,  the 
school-rooms,  the  town  halls — taking  the 
afternoon  to  coax  the  tired  workers  of  the 
fields  or  of  the  mines  to  come  and  hear  us  in 
the  evening,  and  watching  them  fall  asleep 
in  the  light  of  our  borrowed  kerosene  lamps 
while  we  talked.  They  came  eagerly.  In- 
deed, my  own  ambition  for  citizenship — for 
a  right  to  participate  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation — was  probably  no  keener  than  theirs; 
and  they  had  an  innocent  curiosity  about  the 
questions  of  national  politics,  of  which  they 

118 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

had  never  before  been  invited  to  know  any- 
thing. They  listened  almost  devoutly. 

"Brethren  and  sisters,"  a  bishop  exhorted 
them  at  a  meeting  in  which  one  of  our  party 
was  to  speak,  "we  have  come  to  listen  to  this 
man,  and  I  hope  we  will  be  guided  in  all  our 
reflections  by  the  Spirit  of  God  and  that  we 
will  do  nothing  to  offend  that  Spirit.  Let 
there  be  no  commotion,  no  whispering,  and, 
above  all,  no  hand  clapping." 

In  a  life  that  had  as  few  diversions  as  theirs, 
a  political  meeting  was  an  exciting  event. 
The  whole  family  came,  and  the  mothers 
brought  their  babies.  Surely  in  no  other 
American  community  did  politics  ever  have 
such  a  homely  and  serious  consideration. 
Certainly  no  other  community  would  have 
so  quickly  understood  the  theories  of  the  two 
parties  or  accepted  them  so  implicitly. 

But  it  was  all  theory!  I  recognize,  now, 
that  I  preached  a  Republicanism  that  was 
an  ideal  of  what  it  should  be,  rather  than  any 
modern  faith  of  the  "practical  politician." 
I  had  gathered  it  from  my  reading,  from  hear- 
ing the  speeches  in  Congress,  from  sympathetic 
conferences  with  the  great  men  who  were 
responsible  for  the  dogmas  of  the  party;  and 
every  assurance  of  grace  that  their  ability 
could  give  and  my  credulity  accept,  I  pro- 
claimed religiously  as  a  political  salvation 
to  our  people.  I  built  up  an  ideal,  and  then 
judged  the  party  thereafter  according  to  the 

119 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

measure  of  that  ideal.  When  I  found  that 
some  of  the  charges  against  the  Republican 
party  <were  true — charges  which  I  had  indig- 
nantly repelled — I  was  as  shocked  as  any 
pious  worshipper  who  ever  found  that  his 
idol  had  feet  of  clay.  Our  people,  having 
accepted  the  faith  with  as  simple  a  hope  as 
it  was  offered,  were  as  easily  turned  from  it 
when  they  found  that  it  was  false.  The 
political  moods  of  Utah,  for  its  first  few  years 
of  statehood,  were  a  puzzle  to  the  " practical" 
leaders  of  the  parties;  but  to  us  who  under- 
stood the  impulses  of  honesty  that  moved 
the  changes,  things  were  as  clear  as  they  were 
encouraging. 

During  the  previous  summer  in  Washing- 
ton, I  had  met  General  James  S.  Clarkson, 
then  president  of  the  National  League  of 
Republican  Clubs;  and  now,  on  his  invita- 
tion, in  the  Spring  of  1891,  Rich  and  I  went 
to  Louisville  to  speak  before  the  national 
convention  of  the  league.  Through  the  kind- 
ness of  General  Clarkson,  I  was  given  the 
official  recognition  of  a  perfunctory  place  on 
the  executive  committee  of  the  league's 
national  committee,  and  came  into  touch 
with  many  of  the  party  leaders.  It  was  about 
this  time,  I  imagine,  that  they  conceived  the 
idea  of  using  the  gratitude  of  the  Mormons  in 
order  to  carry  Utah  and  the  surrounding 
states  in  which  the  Mormon  vote  might  con- 
stitute a  balance  of  political  power.  I  know 

120 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

that  the  idea  was  old  and  established  when 
I  came  upon  it,  in  1894,  during  the  campaign 
for  statehood.  As  I  also  found,  still  later, 
the  Republican  leaders  and  the  business  inter- 
ests with  which  they  were  in  relation,  had 
their  eyes  on  a  distant  prospect  of  fabulous 
financial  schemes  in  which  the  secret  funds 
of  the  Church  were  to  help  in  the  building  of 
railroads  and  the  promoting  of  other  enter- 
prises of  associated  capital.  But  at  the  time 
of  which  I  am  writing,  I  had  not  had  sufficient 
experience  to  suspect  the  motives  of  the  men 
who  encouraged  our  work  in  Utah;  and  I 
accepted  in  good  faith  their  public  declarations 
that  the  sole  aim  of  the  party  was  to  serve 
the  needs  of  the  people  of  the  United  States — 
and  therefore  of  the  people  of  Utah! 

It  seemed  to  me  that  such  a  noble  principle 
should  win  the  support  of  Mormon  and  Gentile 
alike,  and  it  was  on  this  principle  that  I  ap- 
pealed for  the  support  of  both.  I  was  so  sure 
of  winning  with  it  that  I  resented  and  fought 
against  the  aid  of  the  Church  that  came  to 
us  as  our  campaign  succeeded. 

The  People's  Party  (the  Church  Party)  had 
been  dissolved  (June,  1891)  by  the  formal 
action  of  the  executive  committee,  under 
the  direct  instruction  of  the  leaders  of  the 
Church.  The  tendency  was  for  its  members 
to  organize  themselves  immediately  as  a 
Democratic  party.  They  were  led  by  such 
brilliant  and  trusted  defenders  of  the  Church 

121 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

as  Franklin  S.  Richards,  Chas.  C.  Richards, 
Wm.  H.  King,  James  H.  Moyle,  Brigham  H. 
Roberts  and  Apostle  Moses  Thatcher;  and 
a  group  of  abler  advocates  could  not  have 
been  found  in  any  state  in  the  Union.  It  was 
against  the  sentiment  of  the  Mormon  people, 
vivified  by  such  inspiring  Democracy  as  these 
men  taught,  that  our  little  organization  of 
Republicans  had  to  make  headway;  and  an 
anxiety  began  to  show  itself  among  the  Church 
authorities  for  a  less  unequal  division,  and 
consequently  a  greater  appearance  of  political 
independence,  among  the  faithful. 

Apostle  John  Henry  Smith  came  out  as  a 
Republican  stump  speaker  in  rivalry  with 
Moses  Thatcher,  the  Democratic  Prophet. 
Joseph  F.  Smith  announced  himself  a  Repub- 
lican descendant  of  Whigs.  Apostle  Francis 
Marion  Lyman,  in  his  religious  ministrations, 
counselled  leading  brethren  to  withhold  them- 
selves from  the  Democratic  party  unless  they 
had  gone  too  far  to  retreat.  Men  of  ecclesi- 
astical office  in  various  parts  of  the  territory — 
who  were  regarded  as  being  safe  in  their  wis- 
dom and  fidelity — were  urged  to  hold  them- 
selves and  their  influence  in  reserve  for  such 
use  on  either  side  of  politics  as  the  future 
might  demand. 

Against  this  ecclesiastical  direction  of  the 
people's  choice,  I  objected  again  and  again 
to  the  Presidency,  and  my  objections  seemed 
to  meet  with  acquiescence.  It  required  no 

122 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

prescience  on  my  part  to  foresee  that  the 
growing  dislike  and  distrust  of  Moses  Thatcher 
at  Church  headquarters  would  lead  to  a  strife 
in  the  Church  that  might  be  carried  into  our 
politics;  and  I  knew  how  small  would  be 
the  hope  of  preserving  any  political  inde- 
pendence, if  once  it  were  involved  in  the 
intrigues  of  priests  and  their  rivalries  for  a 
supremacy  of  influence  among  the  people. 
I  was  resolved  that  not  even  a  Church,  ruling 
by  "  divine  right,"  should  interpose  between 
my  country  and  my  franchise;  and  an  en- 
croachment that  I  would  not  permit  upon 
my  own  freedom,  I  would  not  help  to  inflict 
upon  others. 

The  men  with  whom  I  had  been  working 
proposed  me  as  the  candidate  for  Congress 
of  the  new  Utah  Republicans;  and  I  was 
supported  by  a  strong  delegation  from  my 
own  country  and  from  other  parts  of  the 
territory;  but  I  found  that  I  was  not  "satis- 
factory" to  some  of  the  Mormon  leaders,  and 
in  the  convention  (1892)  Apostle  John  Henry 
Smith  and  my  cousin  George  M.  Cannon  led 
in  an  attempt  to  nominate  Judge  Chas. 
Bennett,  a  Gentile  lawyer.  After  a  bitter  fight 
of  two  days  and  nights,  we  carried  the  conven- 
tion against  them,  and  I  was  nominated. 

The  Democrats  selected,  as  their  candidate, 
one  of  the  strongest  characters  in  the  terri- 
tory, Joseph  L.  Rawlins.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
Mormon  bishop,  but  he  had  left  the  Church 

123 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

immediately  upon  reaching  manhood.  He 
was  a  great  lawyer,  a  staunch  Democrat, 
and  wonderfully  popular.  There  followed 
one  of  the  swiftest  and  most  exciting  cam- 
paigns ever  seen  in  Utah.  The  whole  people 
rose  to  it  with  enthusiasm.  Our  party  chair- 
man, Chas.  Crane,  had  a  genius  for  organiza- 
tion; our  speakers  drew  crowded  meetings; 
and  though  charges  of  Church  influence  were 
made  by  both  sides,  the  question  of  religion 
was  no  longer  the  one  that  divided  Utah. 

We  were  getting  on  famously,  when  an 
incident  occurred  that  was  at  once  disastrous 
and  salutary.  While  I  was  away  from  head- 
quarters, stumping  the  districts,  Chairman 
Crane  (who  was  a  Gentile),  Ben  Rich  and 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  issued  a  pamphlet  in  Repub- 
lican behalf  called  "Nuggets  of  Truth."  It 
gave  a  picture  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  original 
Prophet,  on  the  first  page  and  a  picture  of  me 
on  the  last  one.  (They  issued  also  a  certifi- 
cate, obtained  by  Joseph  F.  Smith  and  given 
out  by  him,  that  I  was  a  Mormon  "in  good 
standing.")  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  the  mat- 
ter, I  wired  Chairman  Crane  that  unless  the 
pamphlet  were  immediately  withdrawn,  I 
should  return  to  Salt  Lake  City  and  publicly 
denounce  such  methods.  It  was  withdrawn, 
but  the  damage  wras  done,  I  was  defeated, 
as  I  deserved  to  be — though  I  was  the  inno- 
cent victim  of  the  atrocity — and  Mr.  Rawlins 
was  elected. 

124 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

The  campaign  proved,  however,  that  if  the 
Church  leaders  would  only  keep  their  hands 
off,  there  was  ample  strength  in  either  party 
to  make  a  presentation  of  national  issues  of 
sufficient  appeal  to  divide  the  people  on  party 
lines;  and  it  was  evident  that  the  people 
would  choose  the  party  that  made  the  best 
showing  of  principles  and  candidates.  "  Nug- 
gets of  Truth"  left  us  with  a  nasty  sense  that 
at  no  hour  were  we  assured  of  safety  from 
ecclesiastical  interference — or  the  nefarious 
attempt  to  make  an  appearance  of  such  inter- 
ference— in  our  political  affairs.  But  the 
disaster  that  followed,  in  this  instance,  was 
so  prompt  that  we  could  hope  it  would  prove 
a  lesson. 

Most  important  of  all,  the  campaign  had 
made  it  evident  that  there  was  now  no  politi- 
cal mission  in  Utah  for  the  Liberal  (the  Gen- 
tile) party — assuming  that  the  retirement  of 
the  Mormon  priests  from  politics  was  sincere 
and  permanent.  Accordingly,  the  organiza- 
tion formally  met  some  months  later,  and 
formally  dissolved;  and,  by  that  act,  the  last 
great  obstacle  to  united  progress  was  removed 
from  our  road  to  statehood,  and  the  men  who 
removed  it  acted  with  a  generosity  that  makes 
one  of  the  noblest  records  of  self-sacrifice 
in  the  history  of  the  state. 

They  could  foresee  that  their  dissolution 
as  a  separate  force  meant  statehood  for  Utah— 
a  sovereignty  in  itself  that  would  leave  the 

125 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Gentiles  in  the  minority  and  without  any 
appeal  to  the  nation.  Under  territorial  con- 
ditions, although  the  non- Mormons  were  less 
than  one-third  of  the  population,  they  had 
two-thirds  of  the  political  power.  They 
held  all  the  Federal  offices,  including  executive 
and  judicial  positions.  They  had  the  Gov- 
ernor, with  an  absolute  veto  over  the  acts  of 
the  Mormon  legislature.  They  had  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  who  could  annul  any  stat- 
ute of  the  territory;  and  they  had  with  them 
almost  the  entire  sentiment  of  the  nation. 
It  was  in  their  power  to  have  protracted  the 
Mormon  controversy,  and  to  have  withstood 
the  appeal  for  statehood,  to  this  day. 

They  yielded  everything;  they  accepted, 
in  return,  only  the  good  faith  of  the  Mormons. 
Was  it  within  the  capacity  of  any  human 
mind  to  foresee  that  in  return  for  such  gen- 
erosity the  Church  w^ould  ever  give  over  its 
tabernacles  to  teaching  its  people  to  hold  in 
detestation  the  very  names  of  these  men  who 
saved  us?  Was  it  to  be  suspected  that  the 
political  power  surrendered  by  them  would 
ever  be  used  as  a  persecution  upon  them? — 
that  the  liberty,  given  by  them  to  us,  would 
ever  afterward  be  denied  them  by  us  ?  It  was 
inconceivable.  Neither  in  the  magnanimity 
of  their  minds  nor  in  the  gratitude  of  ours  was 
there  a  suspicion  of  such  a  catastrophe. 

During  1891,  President  Woodruff's  mani- 
festo had  been  ratified  in  local  Church  con- 

126 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ferences  in  every  "stake  of  Zion;"  and  a 
second  General  Conference  had  endorsed  it 
in  October  of  that  year.  President  Woodruff, 
Councillor  Joseph  F.  Smith  and  Apostle 
Lorenzo  Snow  went  before  the  Federal  Master 
in  Chancery — in  a  proceeding  to  regain  pos- 
session of  escheated  Church  property — and 
swore  that  the  manifesto  had  prohibited 
plural  marriages,  that  it  required  a  cessation 
of  all  plural  marriage  living,  and  that  it  was 
being  obeyed  by  the  Mormon  people.  These 
facts  were  recited  in  a  petition  for  amnesty 
forwarded  to  President  Harrison  in  December, 
1891,  accompanied  by  signed  statements 
from  Chief  Justice  Zane,  Governor  Thomas 
and  other  non-Mormons  who  pledged  them- 
selves that  the  petitioners  were  sincere  and 
that  if  amnesty  were  granted  good  faith  would 
be  kept.  "Our  people  are  scattered,"  Presi- 
dent Woodruff  and  his  apostles  declared  in 
their  petition.  "  Homes  are  made  desolate. 
Many  are  still  imprisoned;  others  are  ban- 
ished and  in  hiding.  Our  hearts  bleed  for 
these.  In  the  past  they  followed  our  counsels, 
and  while  they  are  still  afflicted  our  souls  are 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  ...  As  shepherds  of 
a  patient  and  suffering  people  we  ask  am- 
nesty for  them  and  pledge  our  faith  and  honor 
for  their  future." 

At  Washington,  the  Church's  attorney, 
Mr.  Franklin  S.  Richards,  and  delegate  John 
T.  Caine  supported  the  petition  with  their 

127 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

avowals  of  the  sincerity  of  the  Church  leaders, 
the  genuineness  of  our  political  division,  and 
the  sanctity  with  which  we  regarded  the 
promise  to  obey  the  laws.  The  Utah  Com- 
mission, a  non-Mormon  body,  favored  am- 
nesty in  an  official  report  of  September,  1892. 
And  when  I  went  to  Washington,  in  the  winter 
of  1892-3,  the  changed  attitude  of  the  Federal 
authorities  toward  us  was  strikingly  evident. 

President  Harrison  issued  his  amnesty 
proclamation,  early  in  January,  1893,  to  all 
persons  liable  to  the  penalties  of  the  Edmunds- 
Tucker  Act,  but  "on  the  express  condition 
that  they  shall  in  the  future  faithfully  obey 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  .  .  .  and  not 
otherwise."  The  proclamation  concluded: 
"Those  who  fail  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
clemency  hereby  offered  will  be  vigorously 
prosecuted."  Not  a  polygamist  in  Utah, 
to  my  knowledge,  declined  to  take  advantage 
of  the  mercy,  by  refusing  the  expressly  implied 
pledge. 

Meanwhile  the  campaign  had  been  con- 
tinued for  the  return  of  the  escheated  Church 
property  and  for  the  passage  of  an  Enabling 
Act  that  should  permit  the  territory  to  organ- 
ize for  statehood.*  Joseph  L.  Rawlins, 


*Statehood  seemed  still  very  far  away.  There  was  a  Trans- 
Mississippi  Congress  held  at  Ogden  in  1892,  and  though  the 
delegates — coming  from  all  the  states  and  territories  "west 
of  the  river," — were  the  guests  of  the  people  of  Utah,  so 
hopeless  was  our  status  in  the  consideration  of  mankind  that 
the  delegates  from  the  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona 

128 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Democratic  delegate  from  Utah,  worked 
valiantly  among  the  Democrats,  and  he  was 
assisted  by  the  influence  of  Mr.  Franklin  S. 
Richards  and  John  T.  Caine  and  others  among 
their  old  associates  in  that  party.  But,  in 
the  very  midst  of  the  fight,  we  were  advised 
that,  unless  the  Republican  leaders  would 
let  the  Enabling  Act  go  through,  the  Demo- 
cratic leaders  would  falter  in  our  advocacy. 
I  had  been  urged  to  go  to  Washington  by 
the  Presidency  to  do  what  I  might  to  allay 
Republican  antagonism,  and  I  found  that  a 
number  of  self-appointed  lobbyists  (who 
expected^political  preferments  and  other  re- 
wards from  the  Church  in  the  event  of  state- 
hood) had  been  using  the  most  amazing  argu- 
ments in  our  behalf.  For  example,  they  told 
some  of  the  " financial  Senators"  that  the 
Church  had  fourteen  million  dollars  in  secret 
funds  with  which  to  help  build  a  railroad  to 
the  coast  as  soon  as  statehood  should  be 
granted.  They  cited  the  number  of  the 
Church's  adherents  in  all  the  states  and  terri- 


would  not  let  our  names  be  joined  to  theirs  in  a  resolution 
for  statehood  which  we  wished  the  committee  on  resolutions 
to  propose  to  the  Congress.  Governor  Prince  of  New  Mexico 
replied,  to  our  plea  for  a  share  in  the  resolution,  that  he  did 
not  intend  to  damn  New  Mexico  by  having  her  mixed  up  with 
Utah.  We  appealed  to  the  Congress,  and  we  were  saved  by 
a  speech  made  by  Thos.  M.  Patterson  of  Colorado,  subse- 
quently senator  from  Colorado,  who  carried  the  day  for  us. 
At  a  recent  Trans-Mississippi  Congress  held  in  Denver,  I  sat 
with  ex-Senator  Patterson  to  hear  Mr.  Prince  still  proposing 
resolutions  in  support  of  statehood  for  New  Mexico.  Twenty 
years  later! 

129 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tories  of  the  Pacific  Coast  and  as  far  east  as 
Iowa  and  Missouri,  and  predicted  that  the 
gratitude  of  these  people  to  the  Republicans 
who  were  helping  to  free  Utah  would  enable 
the  Republican  party  to  control  a  balance 
of  political  power  in  the  several  states.  They 
declared  positively  that  plural  marriages 
and  plural  marriage  living  had  utterly  ceased 
among  the  Mormons  for  all  time.  And  they 
made  such  statements  with  great  particularity 
to  Senator  Orville  H.  Platt,  of  Connecticut, 
who  was  too  wise  a  man  to  credit  them. 

As  soon  as  I  returned  to  Washington,  he 
summoned  me  to  a  private  meeting,  in  his 
parlor  in  the  Arlington  Hotel,  and  confronted 
me  with  one  of  the  Republican  lobbyists 
who  had  been  soliciting  his  personal  favor 
and  his  almost  controlling  influence.  "  Now, 
Mr.  Cannon,"  he  said,  in  his  dry  way,  "have 
the  Mormons  stopped  living  with  their  plural 
wives  ?  And  will  there  never  be  another  case 
of  plural  marriage  among  them?" 

I  remembered  the  lesson  of  my  interview 
with  him  at  the  time  of  the  campaign  against 
the  disfranchisement  bill,  and  I  answered: 
"  No.  Not  all  the  men  of  the  Church  have 
complied^fully  with  the  law.  So  far  as  I  know, 
all  the  general  authorities  of  the  Church — 
with  two  or  three  exceptions — are  fulfilling 
the  covenant  they  gave;  and  so  far  as  I  can 
judge  there  will  never  be  another  plural 
marriage  ceremony  with  the  consent  or  con- 

130 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

nivance  of  the  leaders  of  the  Church.  But 
human  nature  is  very  much  the  same  in  Utah 
as  it  is  in  Connecticut.  Here  and  there,  no 
doubt,  a  man  feels  that  he's  under  an  obli- 
gation to  keep  his  covenant  with  his  plural 
wives  in  preference  to  the  covenant  of  his 
accepted  amnesty;  and  there  and  here,  pos- 
sibly, in  the  future,  some  man  will  break  the 
law  and  defy  the  orders  of  the  Church  and 
take  a  plural  wife.  But  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  do  not  countenance  either  proceeding, 
and  any  man  who  violates  the  law,  in  either 
respect,  offends  against  the  revelations  of  the 
Church  and,  I  believe,  will  be  dealt  with  as 
an  apostate.  I  come  direct  from  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Church,  and  I  am  authorized 
to  pledge  their  word  of  honor  that  they  will 
themselves  obey  the  law  and  do  all  in  their 
power  as  men  and  leaders  to  bring  their  people 
into  harmony  with  the  institutions  of  this 
country  as  rapidly  as  possible." 

Senator  Platt  had  slowly  unwrapped  him, 
self,  rising  from  his  chair  to  his  full  height  of 
more  than  six  feet,  in  a  lank  and  alarming 
indignation.  " There,"  he  said,  striding  up 
and  down  the  room.  ''That's  it!  That's 
just  it.  These  people  have  been  telling  us 
that  you  were  obeying  the  law — all  of  you — 
in  every  instance — and  would  always  obey  it. 
And  now  you  come  here  and  admit,  openly, 
that  some  of  you,  to  whom  we  have  granted 
amnesty,  are  breaking  your  word — and  that 

131 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

'possibly1  others,  in  the  future,  will  do  the 
same  thing!" 

"Senator,"  I  pleaded,  "what  confidence 
could  you  have  in  me  if  I  were  to  tell  you  the 
Mormons  were  so  superhuman  that  in  a  single 
day  they  could  eliminate  all  their  human 
characteristics  ?  I'm  asking  you  to  recognize 
that  the  tendency  imparted  to  a  whole  com- 
munity is  more  important  than  any  one  man's 
breach  of  the  law.  Believe  me,  if  you  grant 
us  our  statehood,  there  will  never  be  any 
lawbreaking  sanctioned  or  protected  by  the 
Church  leaders,  and  just  as  speedily  as  possible 
the  entire  system  will  be  brought  into  harmony 
with  the  institutions  of  the  nation.  I'm 
telling  you  the  truth." 

He  turned  on  me  to  ask,  abruptly,  how 
the  polygamists  had  adjusted  their  family 
affairs. 

I  answered  that  in  nearly  all  cases  within 
my  personal  knowledge,  the  polygamist  had 
relinquished  conjugal  relations  with  his  plural 
wives  with  the  full  acquiescence  of  them  and 
their  children.  He  supported  them,  cared 
for  the  children,  and  in  all  other  ways  acted 
as  the  guardian  and  protector  of  the  house- 
hold. In  a  few  cases  men  had  gone  to  an 
extreme.  For  instance,  my  uncle,  Angus  M. 
Cannon — president  of  the  Salt  Lake  "stake 
of  Zion,"  a  man  of  most  decided  character — 
had  declared  that  he  had  entered  into  his 
marriage  relations  with  his  wives  under  a 

132 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

covenant  that  gave  them  equality  in  his  re- 
gards ;  and  in  order  that  he  might  not  wound 
the  sensibilities  of  any,  he  had  separated 
himself  from  all. 

I  reminded  Senator  Platt  that  with  such 
examples  on  the  part  of  the  leaders,  there 
could  be  no  general  law-breaking  among  the 
Mormons,  and  that  gradually  the  polygamous 
element  would  accommodate  itself  to  the 
demands  of  law  and  the  commands  of  God. 

He  waved  us  away  with  a  curt  announce- 
ment that  he  would  have  to  think  the  matter 
over.  If  I  had  not  known  the  essential 
justice  and  common  sense  under  his  dry  and 
irascible  exterior,  I  might  have  been  alarmed. 
The  lobbyist's  concern  was  almost  comic. 
As  soon  as  we  were  out  of  hearing  of  the  Sena- 
tor's apartment,  shaking  both  fists  frantically 
at  me,  he  cried:  "You've  ruined  everything! 
We  had  him.  We  had  him — all  right — until 
you  came  down  hereT'and  let  the  cat  out  of 
the  bag!  You  knew  what  we'd  been  telling 
him.  Why  didn't  you  stick  to  it?" 

I  replied  with  equal  warmth:  '  You  may 
lie  all  you  please;  but  if  we  have  to  win  Utah's 
statehood  with  lies  I  don't  want  it.  Senator 
Platt  has  been  generous  to  us  in  our  time  of 
need,  and  I  don't  intend  to  deceive  him — or 
any  other  man." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  was  not  only 
common  honesty;  it  was  also  the  best  policy. 
Senator  Platt  was,  from  that  time  to  the  day 

133 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  his  death,  a  good  friend  and  wise  coun- 
sellor of  the  people  of  Utah.  And  I  wish 
to  lay  particular  stress  upon  this  conversation 
with  him,  because  it  was  a  type  of  many  had 
with  such  men  as  he.  Fred  T.  Dubois,  dele- 
gate in  Congress  from  the  territory  of  Idaho 
and  subsequently  Senator  from  that  state, 
had  been  perhaps  the  strongest  single  oppo- 
nent, in  Washington,  of  the  Mormon  Church; 
he  took  our  promises  of  honor,  as  Senator 
Platt  did,  and  he  pacified  Senator  Cullom, 
Senator  Pettigrew  and  many  others  among 
our  antagonists,  who  afterwards  told  me  that 
they  had  accepted  the  pledges  given  by  Sena- 
tor Dubois  in  our  behalf. 

They  recognized  that  the  Church  and  the 
community  ought  not  to  be  held  responsible 
for  a  few  possible  cases  of  individual  resistance 
or  offence,  so  long  as  there  should  be  a  strict 
adherence  by  the  Church  and  its  leaders  to 
their  personal  and  community  covenant. 
I  emphasize  the  nature  of  this  generous  appre- 
ciation of  our  difficulties,  because  the  present- 
day  polygamists  in  Utah  claim  that  there 
was  a  ''tacit  understanding,"  between  the 
statesmen  in  Washington  and  the  agents  of 
the  Church,  to  the  effect  that  the  polygamists 
of  that  time  might  continue  to  live  with  their 
plural  wives.  This  is  not  true.  There  never 
was  any  such  understanding,  to  my  knowl- 
edge. And  there  could  not  have  been  one, 
in  the  circumstances,  without  my  knowledge. 

134 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

For  though  I  did  not  know  what  delegate 
Rawlins,  and  former  delegate  Caine,  and  our 
attorney,  Mr.  Richards,  were  saying  in  their 
private  interviews  with  senators  and  congress- 
men, I  know  that  in  all  the  frequent  conver- 
sations I  had  with  them  I  never  heard  an 
intimation  of  any  " tacit  understanding" 
beyond  the  one  which  I  have  defined. 

For  my  part  I  was  more  than  eager  to  have 
all  our  political  disabilities  removed,  the 
Church  property  restored,  and  the  right  of 
statehood  accorded — believing  implicitly  in 
the  sincerity  of  the  Mormon  leaders.  I  knew 
President  Woodruff  too  well  to  doubt  the 
pellucid  character  of  his  mind  and  purpose. 
I  knew  from  my  father's  personal  assurance — 
and  from  his  constant  practice  from  that  time 
to  the  day  of  his  death — that  he  was  acting 
in  good  faith.  I  knew  that  the  community 
was  gladly  following  where  these  men  led. 
I  saw  no  slightest  indication  that  any  re- 
actionary policy  was  likely  to  be  entered 
upon  in  Utah,  or  that  our  people  would  accept 
it  if  it  were. 

The  Church's  personal  property  was  re- 
stored by  an  Act  of  Congress  approved  Octo- 
ber 25,  1893,  but  it  was  stipulated  in  the  Act 
that  the  money  was  not  to  be  used  for  the 
support  of  any  church  buildings  in  which 
"  the  rightfulness  of  the  practice  of  polygamy  " 
should  be  taught.  Similarly,  when  the  Enab- 
ling Act  was  approved,  in  July  16,  1894,  it, 

135 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

too,  provided  that  "polygamous  or  plural 
marriage"  was  forever  prohibited.  A  con- 
stitutional convention  was  held  at  Salt  Lake 
City  under  the  provisions  of  that  act,  and  a 
constitution  was  adopted  in  which  it  was  pro- 
vided that  "polygamous  or  plural  marriages" 
were  forever  prohibited,  that  the  territorial 
laws  against  polygamy  were  to  be  continued 
in  force,  that  there  should  be  "no  union  of 
church  and  state,"  and  that  no  church  should 
"dominate  the  state  or  interfere  with  its 
functions."  Upon  no  other  basis  would  the 
nation  have  granted  us  our  statehood;  and 
we  accepted  the  grant,  knowing  the  expressed 
condition  involved  in  that  acceptance. 

But  there  was  one  other  gift  that  came  to 
us  from  the  nation — by  Congressional  enact- 
ment and  later  by  Utah  statute  as  a  conse- 
quence of  statehood;  and  that  gift  was  the 
legitimizing  of  every  child  born  of  plural 
marriage  before  January,  1896.  The  solemn 
benignity  of  the  concession  touched  me,  as 
it  must  have  touched  many,  to  the  very  heart 
of  gratitude.  By  it,  ten  thousand  children 
were  taken  from  the  outer  darkness  of  this 
world's  conventional  exclusion  and  placed 
within  the  honored  relations  of  mankind. 
It  was  a  tribute  to  the  purity  and  sincerity  of 
the  Mormon  women  who  had  borne  the  cross 
of  plural  marriage,  believing  that  God  had 
commanded  their  suffering.  It  recognized 
the  holy  nature  and  honorable  intent  of  the 

136 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

marriages  of  these  women,  by  according  their 
children  every  right  of  legal  inheritance  from 
their  fathers.  If  all  other  covenants  could 
be  forgotten  and  their  proof  obliterated,  this 
should  remain  as  Utah's  pledge  of  honor — 
sacred  for  the  sake  of  the  Mormon  mothers, 
holy  in  the  name  of  the  uplifted  child. 


137 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE^GOAL— AND  AFTER 

Here  we  were  then  (as  I  saw  the  situation) 
assured  of  our  statehood,  rid  of  polygamy, 
relieved  of  religious  control  in  politics,  and 
free  to  devote  our  energies  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  land  and  the  industries  and  the 
business  of  the  community.  The  persecu- 
tions that  our  people  had  borne  had  schooled 
them  to  co-operation.  They  were  ready, 
helping  one  another,  to  advance  together  to  a 
common  prosperity.  They  were  under  the 
leadership  chiefly  of  the  man  who  had  guided 
them  out  of  a  most  desperate  condition  of 
oppression  toward  the  freedom  of  sovereign 
self-government.  In  that  progress  he  had 
saved  everything  that  was  worthy  in  the 
Mormon  communism;  he  had  discarded 
much  that  was  a  curse.  I  knew  that  he  had  no 
thought  but  for  the  welfare  of  the  people; 
and  with  such  a  man,  leading  such  a  following, 
we  seemed  certain  of  a  future  that  should  be 
an  example  to  the  world. 

But  both  the  Church  and  the  people  had 
been  involved  in  debt  by  confiscation  and 
proscription;  and  it  was  necessary  now  to 
free  ourselves  financially.  This  work  my 
father  undertook  in  behalf  of  the  Presidency 
— for  the  President  of  the  Mormon  Church 

138 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

is  not  only  the  Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator 
of  God  to  the  faithful;  he  is  also  "the  trustee 
in  trust "  of  all  the  Church's  material  property. 
He  is  the  controller,  almost  the  owner,  of 
everything  it  owns.  He  is  as  sacred  in  his 
financial  as  in  his  religious  absolutism.  He 
is  accountable  to  no  one.  The  Church  audi- 
tors, whom  he  appoints,  concern  themselves 
merely  with  the  details  of  bookkeeping.  The 
millions  of  dollars  that  are  paid  to  him,  by 
the  people  in  tithes,  are  used  by  him  as  he 
sees  fit  to  use  them ;  and  the  annual  contribu- 
tors to  this  "common  fund"  would  no  more 
question  his  administration  of  it  than  they 
would  question  the  ways  of  divinity. 

In  the  early  days  there  had  been  a  strongly 
animating  idea  that  among  the  divinely- 
authorized  duties  of  leadership  was  the  obliga- 
tion to  develop  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country  in  order  to  meet  the  people's  needs. 
Asjthe  immigrants  poured  into  Utah,  these 
needs  increased;  and  the  Church  leaders 
used  the  Church  funds  to  develop  coal  and 
iron  mines,  support  salt  gardens,  build  a 
railway,  establish  a  sugar  factory  (for  which 
the  people,  through  the  legislature,  voted  a 
bounty),  conduct  a  beach  resort,  and  aid  a 
hundred  other  enterprises  that  promised  to 
be  for  the  public  good.  These  undertakings 
were  not  financed  for  profit.  They  were 
semi-socialistic  in  their  establishment  and 
half-benevolent  in  their  administration. 

139 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

But  during  "  the  days  of  the  raid  "  they  were 
neglected,  because  the  Church  was  involved 
in  debt.  And  now  it  became  pressingly 
necessary  to  obtain  money  to  restore  the 
moribund  industries  and  to  meet  the  pay- 
ments that  were  continually  falling  due  upon 
loans  made  to  the  Presidency.  President 
Woodruff  called  on  me  to  aid  in  the  work. 
So  I  came  into  touch  with  a  development  of 
events  that  did  not  seem  to  me,  then,  of  any 
great  importance;  yet  it  drew  as  its  conse- 
quence a  connection  between  the  Mormon 
Church  and  the  great  financial  "interests" 
of  the  East — a  connection  that  is  one  of  the 
strong  determining  causes  of  the  perversion 
of  government  and  denial  of  political  liberty 
in  Utah  today. 

I  wish,  here,  simply  to  foreshadow  this 
connection.  It  will  reappear  in  the  story 
again  and  again;  and  it  is  necessary  to  have 
the  significance  of  the  recurrence  understood 
in  advance.  But,  at  the  time  of  which  I  write, 
there  was  no  more  than  an  innocent  approach 
on  our  part  to  Eastern  financiers  to  obtain 
money  for  the  Church  and  to  concentrate  our 
debts  in  the  hands  of  two  or  three  New  York 
banks. 

For  example,  the  Church  had  loaned  to, 
or  endorsed  for,  the  Utah  Sugar  Company  to 
the  amount  of  $325,000;  and  my  father  had 
personally  endorsed  the  general  obligations 
for  this  and  other  sums,  although  he  owned 

140 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

only  $5,000  of  the  company's  stock.  He 
supported  the  factory  with  his  personal  credit 
and  assumed  the  risk  of  loss  (without  any 
corresponding  possibility  of  gain)  in  order 
to  benefit  the  whole  people  by  encouraging 
the  beet  sugar  industry.  A  vain  attempt 
had  been  made  to  sell  the  bonds  in  New  York. 
Finally,  the  Church  bought  all  the  bonds  of 
the  company  for  $325,000  (of  a  face  value 
of  $400,000) ,  and  we  sold  them,  for  the  Church, 
to  Mr.  Joseph  Bannigan,  the  "rubber  king," 
of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  for  $360,000, 
with  the  guarantee  of  the  First  Presidency, 
the  trustee  of  the  Church,  and  myself. 

Similarly,  the  First  Presidency  led  in  build- 
ing an  electric  power  plant  in  Ogden,  after 
Chas.  K.  Bannister,  a  great  engineer,  and 
myself  had  persuaded  the  members  of  the 
Presidency  that  the  work  would  benefit  the 
community.  The  bonds  of  this  company, 
too,  were  bought  by  Mr.  Bannigan,  with  the 
guarantee  of  the  trustee  of  the 'Church,  the 
Presidency  and  myself.  Both  the  power  plant 
and  the  sugar  factory  were  financially  suc- 
cessful. They  performed  a  large  public  ser- 
vice beneficently.  The  fact  that  Mr.  Banni- 
gan held  their  bonds  was  no  detriment  to 
their  work  and  wrought  no  injury  to  the 
people. 

I  single  out  these  two  enterprises  because 
Joseph  F.  Smith  has  since  sold  the  power 
plant  to  the  "Harriman  interests,"  and  the 

141 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

control  of  the  sugar  factory  to  the  sugar  trust ; 
and  he  has  explained  that  in  making  the  sales 
he  merely  followed  my  father's  example  and 
mine  in  selling  the  bonds  to  Mr.  Bannigan. 
The  power  plant  is  now  a  part  of  the  merger 
called  the  Utah  Light  and  Railway  Company, 
which  has  a  monopoly  right  in  all  the  streets 
of  Salt  Lake  City  and  its  suburbs,  besides 
owning  the  electric  power  and  light  plants 
of  Salt  Lake  City  and  Ogden,  the  gas  plants 
of  both  these  cities,  and  the  natural  gas  wells 
and  pipe  lines  supplying  them.  The  Mormon 
people  whose  tithes  aided  these  properties — 
whose  good-will  maintained  them — whose 
leaders  designed  them  as  a  community  work 
for  a  community  benefit — these  people  are 
now  being  mercilessly  exploited  by  the  East- 
ern " interests"  to  whom  the  Prophet  of  the 
Church  has  sold  them  bodily.  The  difference 
between  selling  the  bonds  of  the  sugar  com- 
pany to  Bannigan,  in  order  to  raise  money 
to  support  the  factory,  and  selling  half  the 
stock  to  the  sugar  trust,  in  order  to  make  a 
monopoly  profit  out  of  the  Mormon  consumers 
of  sugar,  has  either  not  occurred  to  Smith 
or  has  been  divinely  waived  by  him. 

However,  this  is  by  the  way  and  in  advance 
of  my  story.  In  1894  we  had  no  more  fear 
of  the  Eastern  money  power  than  we  had  of 
the  return  of  the  Church  to  politics  or  to 
polygamy.  Throughout  1893  and  1894  I  was 
engaged  in  the  work  of  re-establishing  the 

142 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Church's  business  affairs  with  my  father  and 
a  sort  of  finance  committee  of  which  the  other 
two  members  were  Colonel  N.  W.  Clayton, 
of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  Mr.  James  Jack,  the 
cashier  of  the  Church.  In  the  summer  of 
1894  I  heard  various  rumors  that  when  Utah 
should  gain  its  statehood,  my  father  would 
probably  be  a  candidate  for  the  United  States 
Senate.  Since  this  would  be  a  palpable 
breach  of  the  Church's  agreement  to  keep 
out  of  politics,  I  took  occasion — one  day,  on  a 
railroad  journey — to  ask  him  if  he  intended 
to  be  a  candidate. 

He  told  me  that  he  was  being  urged  to 
stand  for  the  Senatorship,  but  that  for  his 
part  he  had  no  desire  to  do  so;  and  he  asked 
me  what  I  thought  about  it.  I  replied  that 
if  I  had  felt  it  was  right  for  him  to  take  the 
office  and  he  desired  it,  I  would  walk  barefoot 
across  the  continent  to  aid  him.  But  I  re- 
minded him  of  the  pledges  which  he  and  I  had 
made  repeatedly — on  our  own  behalf,  in  the 
name  of  his  associates  in  leadership,  and  on 
the  honor  of  the  Mormon  people — to  subdue 
thereafter  the  causes  of  the  controversy  that 
had  divided  Mormon  and  Gentile  in  Utah. 
He  replied  with  an  emphatic  assurance  of  his 
purpose  to  keep  those  pledges,  and  dismissed 
the  subject  with  a  finality  that  left  no  doubt 
in  my  mind. 

I  know  that  he  might  have  desired  the  Sena- 
torship as  a  public  vindication,  since,  in  the 

143 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

old  days  of  quarrel,  he  had  been  legislated 
out  of  his  place  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives; and,  for  the  first  and  only  time  in  my 
life,  I  undertook  to  philosophize  some  comfort 
for  him — out  of  the  fact  that  to  the  position 
of  authority  which  he  held  in  Utah  a  Senator- 
ship  was  a  descent.  He  replied  dryly:  "I 
understand,  my  son — perfectly."  The  fact 
was  that  he  needed  no  comfort  from  me  or 
any  other  human  being.  He  seemed  all- 
sufficient  to  himself,  because  of  the  abiding 
sense  he  had  of  the  constant  presence  of  God 
and  his  habit  of  communing  with  that  Spirit, 
instead  of  seeking  human  intercourse  or 
earthly  counsel.  He  did  not  need  my  affec- 
tion. He  did  not  need,  much  less  seek,  the 
approbation  of  any  man.  In  the  events  to 
which  this  conversation  was  a  prelude,  he 
acted  without  explaining  himself  to  me  or  to 
anyone  else,  and  apparently  without  caring 
in  the  slightest  what  my  opinion  or  any  other 
man's  might  be  of  his  course  or  of  the  motives 
that  prompted  it. 

Some  months  later,  in  the  office  of  the 
Presidency  (at  a  business  meeting  with  him, 
Colonel  Clayton  and  Joseph  F.  Smith),  I  ex- 
cused myself  from  attending  any  further 
sittings  of  the  committee  for  that  day,  be- 
cause I  had  to  go  to  Provo  to  receive  the  Re- 
publican nomination  for  Congress. 

My  father  said:  "I  am  sorry  to  hear  it. 
I  thought  Judge  Zane — or  someone  else — 

144 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

would  be  nominated.  I  wished  you  to  be 
free  to  help  with  these  business  matters. 
Why  have  you  not  consulted  us?" 

I  reminded  him  that  I  had  told  him,  some 
weeks  before,  that  I  expected  to  be  nominated 
for  Congress  this  year — and  that  I  was  prac- 
tically certain,  if  elected,  of  going  to  the 
Senate  when  we  were  granted  statehood. 
"I  talked  with  you,  then,  as  my  father," 
I  said.  "  But  I'm  sure  you'll  remember  that 
I  have  not  consulted  you  as  a  leader  of  the 
Church,  or  any  of  your  colleagues  as  leaders 
of  the  Church,  on  the  subject  of  partisan 
politics  since  the  People's  Party  was  dis- 
solved." 

He  accepted  this  mild  declaration  of  politi- 
cal independence  without  protest,  and  I  went 
to  Provo,  happily,  a  free  man.  The  Repub- 
licans nominated  me  by  acclamation,  and 
the  chairman  of  the  committee  that  came  to 
offer  me  the  nomination  was  Colonel  Wm. 
Nelson,  then  managing  editor  of  the  Salt 
Lake  Tribune,  a  Gentile,  a  former  leader  of 
the  Liberal  Party,  an  opponent  of  Mormonism 
as  practised,  who  had  fought  the  Church 
hierarchy  for  years.  Here  was  a  new  evi- 
dence that  we  were  now  beyond  the  old  quar- 
rels— a  further  guarantee  that  we  were  pre- 
pared to  take  our  place  among  the  states  of 
the  Union,  free  of  parochialism  and  its  sec- 
tarian enmities. 

The  campaign  gave  every  proof  of  such 

145 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

political  emancipation.  The  people  divided, 
on  national  party  lines,  as  completely  as  any 
American  community  in  my  experience. 
The  Democrats,  having  nominated  Joseph 
L.  Rawlins,  had  the  prestige  that  he  had 
gained  in  helping  to  pass  the  Enabling  Act; 
a  Democratic  administration  was  in  power 
in  Washington;  Apostle  Moses  Thatcher, 
Brigham  H.  Roberts,  and  other  members  of 
the  Church  inspired  the  old  loyalty  of  the 
Mormons  for  the  Democracy.  But  the  Repub- 
licans had  been  re-enforced  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  Liberal  Party,  whose  last  preceding 
candidate  (Mr.  Clarence  E.  Allen)  went  on 
the  stump  for  us.  The  Smith  jealousy  of 
Moses  Thatcher  divided  the  Church  influence; 
and  though  charges  of  ecclesiastical  inter- 
ference were  made  on  both  sides,  such  inter- 
ference was  personal  rather  than  official. 
Mr.  Rawlins  was  defeated,  and  I  was  elected 
delegate  in  Congress  from  the  territory — 
with  the  United  States  Senatorship  practi- 
cally assured  to  me. 

In  the  spring  of  1895  the  constitutional 
convention  at  Salt  Lake  City  formulated  a 
provisional  constitution  for  the  new  Utah; 
and,  in  the  Fall  of  the  year,  a  general  election 
was  held  to  adopt  this  constitution  and  to 
elect  officers  who  should  enter  upon  their 
duties  as  soon  as  Utah  became  a  state.  The 
election  was  marked  by  a  most  significant 
and  important  incident. 

146 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

The  Democrats,  in  their  convention,  nomi- 
nated for  Congress,  Brigham  H.  Roberts, 
one  of  the  first  seven  "  presidents  of  the 
seventy,"  and  for  the  United  States  Senate, 
Joseph  L.  Rawlins  and  Apostle  Moses  That- 
cher. Immediately,  at  a  priesthood  meeting 
of  the  hierarchy,  Joseph  F.  Smith  denounced 
the  candidacies  of  Roberts  and  Thatcher; 
and  the  grounds  for  the  denunciation  were 
subsequently  stated  in  the  "political  mani- 
festo" of  April,  1896,  in  which  the  First 
Presidency  announced,  as  a  rule  of  the  Church, 
that  no  official  of  the  Church  should  accept 
a  political  nomination  until  he  had  obtained 
the  permission  of  the  Church  authorities  and 
had  learned  from  them  whether  he  could 
"consistently  with  the  obligations  already 
entered  into  with  the  Church,  take  upon 
himself  the  added  duties  and  labors  and 
responsibilities  of  the  new  position." 

This  action,  I  knew,  was  the  result  of  the 
old  jealousy  of  Thatcher  which  the  Smiths 
had  so  long  nursed.  But  it  was  also  in  line 
with  the  Church's  pledge,  to  keep  its  leaders 
out  of  politics.  By  it,  the  hierarchy  bound 
themselves  and  set  the  people  free.  The 
leaders,  thereafter,  according  to  their  own 
"manifesto,"  could  not  enter  politics  without 
the  consent  of  their  quorums;  and,  therefore, 
by  any  American  doctrine,  they  could  not 
enter  politics  at  all.  Thatcher  and  Roberts 
revolted  against  the  inhibition  as  an  infringe- 

147 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ment  of  their  rights  as  citizens,  and  it  was  so 
construed  by  the  whole  Democratic  party; 
but  everyone  knew  that  a  Mormon  apostle 
had  no  rights  as  a  citizen  that  were  not  second 
to  his  Church  allegiance,  and  the  political 
manifesto  simply  made  public  the  fact  of 
such  subservience,  authoritatively.  We 
Republicans  welcomed  it,  with  our  eyes  on 
the  future  freedom  of  politics  in  Utah; 
Thatcher  and  Roberts  refused  to  accept 
the  dictation  of  their  quorums,  and  what  was 
practically  an  "edict  of  apostasy"  went  out 
against  them.  They  were  defeated.  The 
Republican  candidates  (Heber  M.  Wells,  as 
governor,  and  Clarence  E.  Allen,  as  member 
of  Congress)  were  elected.  Thatcher,  sub- 
sequently refusing  to  accept  the  "  political 
manifesto,"  was  deposed  from  his  apostolic 
authority,  and  deprived  of  all  priesthood  in 
the  Church.  Roberts  recanted  and  was 
reconciled  with  the  hierarchy.* 

The  Republicans  elected  forty-three  out  of 
sixty-three  members  of  the  legislature,  and 
everyone  of  these  had  been  pledged  to  support 
me,  for  the  United  States  Senate,  either  by 
his  convention,  or  by  letter  to  me,  or  by  a 
promise  conveyed  to  me  by  friends;  and 
none  of  these  pledges  had  I  solicited. 

The  rumors  of  my  father's  candidacy  now 
became  more  general — although  he  was  a 

*He  was  afterwards  electedkto  the  House  of  Representatives 
and  was  refused  his  seat  as  a  polygamist. 

148 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Democrat,  although  the  new  "political  mani- 
festo" bound  him,  although  it  was  doubtful 
whether  the  Senate  would  allow  him  to  be 
seated.  Two  influences  were  urging  his  elec- 
tion. One  was  the  desire  of  the  Smith  faction 
to  have  the  First  Councillor  break  the  ice  at 
Washington  for  Apostle  John  Henry  Smith, 
who  was  ambitious  to  be  a  Senator  and  was 
disqualified  by  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Church 
leader  and  a  polygamist.  The  other  was  the 
desire  of  some  Eastern  capitalists  to  have  my 
father's  vote  in  the  Senate  to  aid  them  in  the 
promotion  of  a  railroad  from  Salt  Lake  City 
to  Los  Angeles.  A  preliminary  agreement 
for  the  construction  of  the  road  had  already 
been  signed  by  men  who  represented  that 
they  had  close  affiliations  with  large  steel 
interests  in  the  East,  as  one  party,  and  my 
father  as  business  representative  of  a  group 
of  associates,  including  the  Presidency  of  the 
Church.  The  Church's  interest  in  the  project 
was  communistic,  and  so  was  my  father's. 
But  his  vote  and  influence  in  the  Senate  would 
be  valuable  to  the  promotion  of  the  undertak- 
ing, and  he  had  received  written  assurances 
from  Republican  leaders,  senators  and  poli- 
ticians, that  if  he  were  elected  he  would  be 
allowed  his  seat. 

As  a  result  of  our  Republican  success  in 
the  two  political  campaigns  that  had  just 
ended,  I  felt  that  I  represented  the  independ- 
ent votes  of  both  Mormons  and  Gentiles; 

149 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  I  decided  to  confront  the  First  Presi- 
dency (as  such  a  representative)  and  try  to 
make  them  declare  themselves  in  the  matter 
of  my  father's  candidacy.  Not  that  I  thought 
his  candidacy  would  be  so  vitally  important — 
for  I  did  not  then  believe  the  Church  authori- 
ties had  power  to  sway  the  legislature  away 
from  its  pledges.  But  every  day,  at  home  or 
abroad,  I  was  being  asked:  "Are  you  sure 
that  the  Church's  retirement  from  politics 
is  sincere?"  My  friends  were  accepting  my 
word,  and  I  wished  to  add  certainty  to  assur- 
ance that  the  Church  leaders  intended  to 
fulfil  the  covenant  of  their  personal  honor 
and  respect  the  constitution  of  the  state  by 
keeping  out  of  politics. 

Without  letting  them  know  why  I  wished 
to  see  them,  I  procured  an  appointment  for 
the  interview.  When  we  were  all  seated  at 
the  table  I  explained:  "I'm  going  to  Wash- 
ington to  attend  to  my  duties  as  delegate  in 
Congress.  Before  I  return,  Utah  will  be  ad- 
mitted to  statehood,  and  the  legislature  will 
have  to  elect  two  United  States  Senators. 
As  you  all  know,  I've  been  a  candidate  for 
one  of  these  places.  It  has  been  assured  to 
me  by  the  probably  unanimous  vote  of  the 
Republican  caucus  when  it  shall  convene." 
I  laid  my  clenched  hand  on  the  table,  knuckles 
down,  with  a  calculated  abruptness.  "The 
first  senatorship  from  Utah  is  there,'1  I  said. 
"  If  it's  to  be  disturbed  by  any  ecclesiastical 

150 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

direction,  I  want  to  know  it  now,  so  that  the 
men  who  are  supporting  me  may  be  aware 
of  what  they  must  encounter  if  they  persist 
in  their  support.  I  ask  you,  as  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Church:  what  are  you  going  to 
do  about  the  Senatorship  ?"  And  I  opened 
my  hand  and  left  it  lying  open  before  them, 
for  their  decision. 

It  was  evident  enough,  from  their  expres- 
sions, that  this  was  a  degree  of  boldness  to 
which  they  were  unaccustomed.  It  was 
evident  also  that  they  were  unprepared  to 
reply  to  me.  My  father  remained  silent, 
with  his  usual  placidity,  waiting  for  the  others 
to  fail  to  take  the  initiative.  President 
Woodruff  blinked,  somewhat  bewildered, 
looking  at  my  hand  as  if  the  sight  of  its  empti- 
ness and  the  assumption  of  what  it  held,  con- 
fused him.  Joseph  F.  Smith,  frowning,  eyed  it 
askance  with  a  darting  glance,  apparently  an- 
noyed by  the  mute  insolence  of  its  demand  for 
a  decision  which  he  was  not  prepared  to  make. 

My  father,  at  length,  looking  at  me  imper- 
turbably,  asked:  "Are  you  inquiring  of  our 
personal  view  in  this  matter,  Frank?" 

The  question  contained,  of  course,  a  tacit 
allusion  to  my  refusal  to  consult  the  Church 
leaders  about  politics.  I  answered:  "No,  sir. 
I  already  have  your  personal  view.  That  is 
the  only  personal  view  I  have  ever  asked  con- 
cerning the  Senatorship.  And  I  have  pur- 
posely refrained  from  any  allusions  to  it  of 

151 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

late,  with  you,  because  I  wished  to  lav  it  before 
the  Presidency,  as  a  body,  formally,  in  order 
that  there  might  be  no  possible  misunder- 
standing. ' ' 

"In  that  case,"  he  said,  "the  matter  rests 
with  President  Woodruff." 

The  President,  thus  forced  to  an  explana- 
tion, made  a  very  characteristic  one.  Several 
of  the  Church's  friends  in  the  East,  he  said, 
had  urged  father's  name  for  the  Senatorship, 
but  it  was  impossible  to  see  how  he  could  be 
spared  from  the  affairs  of  the  priesthood. 
Zion  needed  him — and  so  forth. 

Apparently,  to  President  Woodruff,  the 
question  of  the  Senatorship  was  resolvable 
wholly  upon  Church  considerations.  His 
mind  was  so  filled  with  zealous  hope  for  the 
advancement  of  "the  Kingdom  of  God  on 
Earth,"  that  he  seemed  quite  unaware  of 
the  political  aspects  of  the  case,  the  violation 
of  the  Church's  pledge,  and  the  difficulties 
in  the  Senate  that  would  surely  attend  upon 
my  father's  election. 

In  the  general  discussion  that  ensued,  both 
Joseph  F.  Smith  and  my  father  spoke  of  the 
appeal  that  had  been  made  to  them  on  behalf 
of  the  business  interests  of  the  community, 
with  which  the  financial  interests  of  the  East 
were  now  eager  to  co-operate.  But  both 
followed  the  President's  example  in  dismissing 
the  possibility  of  the  First  Councillor's  candi- 
dacy as  infringing  upon  his  duties  in  the 

152 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Church.  I  pointed  out  to  them  that  such  a 
candidacy  would  be  considered  a  breach  of 
faith,  that  it  would  raise  a  storm  of  protest. 
They  accepted  the  warning  without  comment, 
as  if,  having  decided  against  the  candidacy, 
they  did  not  need  to  consider  such  aspects 
of  it.  I  kept  my  hand  open  before  them  until 
my  father  said,  with  some  trace  of  amusement : 
'You'd  better  take  up  that  senatorship, 
Frank.  I  think  you're  entitled  to  it." 

I  took  it  up,  satisfied  that  there  would  be 
no  more  Church  interference  in  the  matter. 
The  decision  seemed  to  me  final  and  moment- 
ous. I  felt  that  the  new  Utah  had  faced  the 
old  and  had  been  assured  of  independence. 

About  this  same  time  (although  I  cannot 
place  it  accurately  in  my  recollection) ,  Presi- 
dent Woodruff,  speaking  from  the  pulpit, 
declared  that  it  was  the  right  of  the  priest- 
hood of  God  to  rule  in  all  things  on  earth, 
and  that  they  had  in  no  wise  relinquished 
any  of  their  authority.  The  sermon  raised 
a  dangerous  alarm  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  I 
was  immediately  summoned  from  Ogden  (by 
a  messenger  from  Church  headquarters)  to 
see  the  proprietor  and  the  editor  of  the  Salt 
Lake  Tribune — which  paper,  it  was  feared, 
might  oppose  Utah's  admission  to  statehood, 
construing  President  Woodruff's  remarks  to 
mean  that  the  Church's  political  covenants 
were  to  be  broken. 

I  found  Mr.  P.  H.  Lannan,  the  proprietor 

153 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  the  paper,  anxious,  indignant  and  ready 
to  denounce  the  Church  and  fight  against 
the  admission  to  statehood.  "  When  I  heard 
of  that  sermon,"  he  said,  "my  heart  went 
into  my  boots.  We  Gentiles  have  trusted 
everything  to  the  promises  that  have  been 
made  by  the  leaders  of  the  Church.  If  the 
Tribune  had  not  supported  the  movement  for 
statehood,  the  Gentiles  would  never  have 
taken  the  risk.  I  feel  like  a  man  who  has 
sold  his  brethren  into  slavery." 

I  assured  him  (as  I  was  authorized  to  do) 
that  President  Woodruff  was  not  speaking  for 
our  generation  of  the  Mormon  people  nor  for 
his  associates  in  the  leadership  of  the  Church. 
I  pleaded  that  it  was  the  privilege  of  an  old 
man  (and  President  Woodruff  was  nearly 
ninety)  to  dream  again  the  visions  of  his 
youth;  his  early  life  had  been  spent  in  the 
belief  that  a  Kingdom  of  God  was  to  be  set 
up  in  the  valleys  of  the  mountains,  governed 
by  the  priesthood  and  destined  to  rule  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth;  he  had  planted  the 
first  flag  of  the  country  over  the  Salt  Lake 
Valley;  he  was  still  living  in  days  that  had 
passed  for  all  but  him,  and  cherishing  hopes 
that  he  alone  had  not  abandoned.  But  if 
the  Tribune  and  the  Gentiles  would  be  mag- 
nanimous in  this  matter,  they  would  add  to 
the  gratitude  that  already  bound  the  younger 
generations  of  the  Church  to  the  fulfilment 
of  its  political  promises. 

154 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Mr.  Lannan  responded  instantly  to  the 
appeal  to  his  generosity,  and  after  consulta- 
tion with  the  editor-in-chief  (Judge  C.  C. 
Goodwin)  and  the  managing  editor  (Colonel 
Wm.  Nelson)  the  Tribune  continued  to  trust 
in  Mormon  good  faith. 

I  reported  the  result  of  my  conference  to 
Church  headquarters.  The  news  was  received 
with  relief  and  gratitude.  And,  in  a  long 
conversation  with  the  authorities,  I  was  told 
that  it  would  be  incumbent  on  us  of  the 
younger  generation  to  see  that  all  the  Church's 
covenants  to  the  nation  should  be  scrupu- 
lously observed. 

I  accepted  my  part  of  the  charge  with  a 
light  heart,  and  late  in  November,  1895,  I 
took  train  for  Washington  for  convening 
of  Congress.  Of  the  incidents  of  my  brief 
services  as  delegate  I  shall  write  nothing  here, 
since  those  incidents  were  merely  introduc- 
tory to  matters  which  I  shall  have  to  consider 
later.  But  I  was  greeted  with  a  great  deal 
of  cordiality  by  the  Republicans  who  credited 
me  with  having  brought  a  state  and  its 
national  representation  into  the  Republican 
party,  and  they  assured  me  that  my  own 
political  future  would  be  as  bright  as  that  of 
my  native  state! 

President  Cleveland,  on  January  4,  1896, 
proclaimed  Utah  a  sovereign  state  of  the 
Union,  and  its  admission  to  statehood  ended, 
of  course,  my  service  as  a  territorial;  delegate. 

155 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  stood  beside  his  desk  in  the  White  House 
to  see  him  sign  the  proclamation — the  same 
desk  at  which  he  had  received  me,  some  eight 
years  before,  when  I  came  beseeching  him 
to  be  merciful  to  the  proscribed  people  whose 
freedom  he  was  now  announcing.  Perhaps 
the  manumission  that  he  was  granting,  gave 
a  benignity  to  his  face.  Perhaps  the  emotion 
in  my  own  mind  transfigured  him  to  me. 
But  I  saw  smiles  and  pathos  in  the  ruggedness 
of  his  expression  of  congratulation  as  he  said 
a  few  words  of  hope  that  Utah  would  fulfil 
every  promise  made,  on  her  behalf,  by  her 
own  people,  and  every  happy  expectation 
that  had  been  entertained  for  her  by  her 
friends.  His  enormous  rigid  bulk,  a  little 
bowed  now  by  years  of  service,  seemed  soft- 
ened, as  his  face  was,  to  the  graciousness  of 
clement  power.  He  gave  me  the  pen  with 
which  he  had  signed  the  paper,  and  dismissed 
me  to  some  of  the  happiest  hours  of  my  life. 
I  walked  out  of  the  White  House  dispos- 
sessed of  office,  but  now,  at  last,  a  citizen  of 
the  Republic.  I  stood  on  the  steps  of  the 
White  House,  to  look  at  the  city  through 
whose  streets  I  had  so  many  times  wandered 
in  a  worried  despair,  and  I  saw  them  with  an 
emotion  I  would  not  dare  transcribe.  I  do 
not  know  that  the  sun  was  really  shining, 
but  in  my  memory  the  scene  has  taken  on  all 
the  accumulated  brightnesses  of  all  the  radiant 
days  I  ever  knew  in  Washington.  And  I 

156 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

remember  that  I  saw  the  Washington  Monu- 
ment and  the  Capitol  with  a  sense  of  almost 
affectionate  personal  possession ! 

In  an  excited  exultation  I  went  to  thank 
the  men  who  had  helped  us  in  the  House  and 
the  Senate — to  wire  jubilant  messages  home- 
to  send  Governor  Wells  the  pen  with  which 
the  President  had  signed  his  proclamation, 
and  to  procure  from  friends  in  the  War  Depart- 
ment the  first  two  flags  that  had  been  made 
with  forty-five  stars — the  star  of  Utah  the 
forty-fifth.  Wherever  I  went,  some  sinister 
aspect  seemed  to  have  gone  out  of  things; 
and  I  remember  that  I  enjoyed  so  much  the 
sense  of  their  new  inhostility,  that  I  planned 
to  delay  my  return  to  Utah  until  I  had  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  every  spot  in  Washington 
where  I  had  despaired  of  our  future. 

All  this  may  seem  almost  sentimental  to 
you,  who  perhaps  accept  your  citizenship  as 
an  unregarded  commonplace  of  natural  right. 
But,  for  me,  the  freeing  of  our  people  was 
an  emancipation  to  be  compared  only  to  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  Southern  slaves — 
and  greater  even  than  that,  for  we  had  come 
from  citizenship  in  the  older  states,  and  we 
could  appreciate  our  deprivation,  smart  under 
our  ostracism,  and  resent  the  rejection  that 
set  us  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  nation  as  an 
inferior  people  unfit  for  equal  rights. 

I  sat  down  to  my  dinner,  that  evening,  with 
the  appetite  that  comes  from  a  day  of  fasting 

157 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  emotional  excitement;  and  I  recall  that 
I  was  planning  a  visit  of  self -congratulation 
to  Arlington,  for  the  morrow,  when  one  of  the 
hotel  bell-boys  brought  me  a  telegram.  I 
opened  it  eagerly — to  enjoy  the  expected 
message  of  felicitation  from  home. 

It  was  in  cipher,  and  that  fact  gave  me  a 
pause  of  doubt,  since  the  days  of  political 
mysteries  and  their  cipher  telegrams  were 
over  for  us,  thank  God!  It  was  signed  with 
President  Woodruff's  cipher  name. 

I  went  to  my  room  to  translate  it,  and  I  did 
not  return  to  my  ^dinner.  The  message  read: 
"It  is  the  will  of  the  Lord  that  your  father 
shall  be  elected  Senator  from  Utah." 

I  do  not  need  to  explain  all  the  treacherous 
implications  of  that  announcement.  As  soon 
as  I  had  recovered  my  breath,  I  wired  back, 
for  such  interpretation  as  they  should  choose 
to  give:  "God  bless  Utah.  I  am  coming 
home," — and  packed  my  trunk,  for  trouble. 


158 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  FIRST  BETRAYALS 

Before  I  reached  Utah,  my  friends,  Ben 
Rich  and  James  Devine,  met  me,  on  the  train. 
The  news  of  President  Woodruff's  "  revela- 
tion" had  percolated  through  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  Gentiles  were  alarmed  for 
themselves.  My  friends  were  anxious  for 
me.  All  the  old  enmities  that  had  so  long 
divided  Utah  were  arranging  themselves  for 
a  new  conflict.  And  Rich  and  Devine  had 
come  to  urge  me  to  remember  my  promise 
that  I  would  hold  to  my  candidacy  no  matter 
who  should  appear  in  the  field  against  me. 

Of  my  father's  stand  in  the  crisis  Rich  could 
give  me  only  one  indication:  after  a  confer- 
ence in  the  offices  of  the  Presidency,  Rich 
had  said  to  President  Woodruff:  "Then 
I  suppose  I  may  as  well  close  up  Frank's 
rooms  at  the  Templeton  "•  —  the  hotel  in  which 
my  friends  had  opened  political  headquarters 
for  me — and  my  father,  accompanying  him 
to  an  anteroom,  had  hinted  significantly: 
11 1  think  you  should  not  close  Frank's  rooms 
just  yet.  He  may  need  them." 

Rich  brought  me  word,  too,  that  the  Church 
authorities  were  expecting  to  see  me;  and 
as  soon  as  I  arrived  in  Salt  Lake  City,  I  hast- 

159 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ened  to  the  little  plastered  house  in  which 
the  Presidency  had  its  offices. 

President  Woodruff,  my  father,  and  Joseph 
F.  Smith  were  there,  in  the  large  room  of  their 
official  apartments.  We  withdrew,  for  private 
conference,  into  the  small  retiring  room  in 
which  I  had  consulted  with  "  Brother  Joseph 
Mack"  when  he  was  on  the  underground— 
in  1888 — and  had  consulted  with  President 
Woodruff  about  his  "manifesto,"  in  1890. 
The  change  in  their  circumstances,  since  those 
unhappy  days,  was  in  my  mind  as  I  sat  down. 

President  Woodruff  sat  at  the  head  of  a 
bare  walnut  table  in  a  chair  so  large  that  it 
rather  dwarfed  him;  and  he  sank  down  in  it, 
to  an  attitude  of  nervous  reluctance  to  speak, 
occupied  with  his  hands.  Smith  took  his 
place  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  board,  writh 
dropped  eyes,  his  chair  tilted  back,  silent, 
but  (as  I  soon  saw)  unusually  alert  and 
attentive.  My  father  assumed  his  inevitable 
composure — firmly  and  almost  unmovingly 
seated — and  looked  at  me  squarely  with  a 
not  unkind  premonition  of  a  smile. 

President  Woodruff  continued  silent.  Ordi- 
narily, anything  that  came  from  the  Lord 
was  quite  convincing  to  him  and  needed  no 
argument  (in  his  mind)  to  make  it  convincing 
to  others.  I  could  not  suppose  that  the  look 
of  determination  on  my  face  troubled  him. 
It  was  more  likely  that  something  unusual 
in  the  mental  attitudes  of  his  councillors  was 

160 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  cause  of  his  hesitation;  and  with  this 
suspicion  to  arouse  me  I  became  increasingly 
aware  (as  the  conference  proceeded)  of  two 
rival  watchfulnesses  upon  me. 

11  Well  ? "  I  said.  "  What  was  it  you  wanted 
of  me?" 

Smith  looked  up  at  the  President.  And 
Smith  had  always,  hitherto,  seemed  so  un- 
seeing of  consequences,  and,  therefore,  un- 
appreciative  of  means,  that  his  betrayal  of 
interest  was  indicative  of  purpose.  I  thought 
I  could  detect,  in  the  communication  which 
his  manner  made,  the  plan  of  my  father's 
ecclesiastical  rivals  to  remove  him  from  the 
scene  of  his  supreme  influence  over  the  Presi- 
dent, and  the  plan  of  ambitious  church  poli- 
ticians to  remove  me  from  their  path  by  the 
invocation  of  God's  word  appointing  father 
to  the  Senate. 

"Frank,"  the  President  announced,  "it 
is  the  will  of  the  Lord  that  your  father  should 
go  to  the  Senate  from  Utah." 

As  he  hesitated,  I  said:  "Well,  President 
Woodruff?" 

He  added,  with  less  decision:  "And  we 
want  you  to  tell  us  how  to  bring  it  about?" 

It  was  evident  that  getting  the  revelation 
was  easy  to  his  spiritualized  mind,  but  that 
fulfilling  it  was  difficult  to  his  unworldliness. 

"President  Woodruff,"  I  replied,  "you 
have  received  the  revelation  on  the  wrong 
point.  You  do  not  need  a  voice  from  heaven 

161 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  convince  anyone  that  my  father  is  worthy 
to  go  to  the  Senate,  but  you  will  need  a  reve- 
lation to  tell  how  he  is  to  get  there." 

He  seemed  to  raise  himself  to  the  inspira- 
tion of  divine  authority.  "  The  only  difficulty 
that  we  have  encountered,"  he  said,  "is  the 
fact  that  the  legislators  are  pledged  to  you. 
Will  you  not  release  them  from  their  promises 
and  tell  them  to  vote  for  your  father  ?" 

"No,"  I  said.  "And  my  father  would 
not  permit  me  to  do  it,  even  if  I  could.  He 
knows  that  I  gave  my  word  of  honor  to  my 
supporters  to  stand  as  a  candidate,  no  matter 
who  might  enter  against  me.  He  knows  that 
he  and  I  have  given  our  pledges  at  Washing- 
ton that  political  dictation  in  Utah  by  the 
heads  of  the  Mormon  Church  shall  cease.  Of 
all  men  in  Utah  we  cannot  be  amenable  to 
such  dictation.  If  you  can  get  my  supporters 
away  from  me — very  well.  I  shall  have  no 
personal  regrets.  But  you  cannot  get  me 
away  from  my  supporters." 

This  inclusion  of  my  father  in  my  refusal 
evidently  disconcerted  President  Woodruff; 
and,  as  evidently,  it  had  its  significance  to 
Joseph  F.  Smith. 

I  went  on:  "Before  I  was  elected  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  I  asked  my  father 
if  he  intended  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Sen- 
ate. I  knew  that  some  prominent  Gentiles, 
desiring  to  curry  favor  at  Church  headquarters 
had  solicited  his  candidacy.  I  had  been  told 

162 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

that  General  Clarkson  and  others  had  assured 
him  by  letter  that  his  election  would  be  ac- 
cepted at  Washington,  and  elsewhere.  I  dis- 
cussed the  matter  with  him  fully.  He  agreed 
with  me  that  his  election  would  be  a  violation 
of  the  understanding  had  with  the  country; 
and  he  declared  that  he  did  not  care  to  become 
again  the  storm  center  of  strife  to  his  people, 
nor  did  he  feel  that  he  could  honorably  break 
our  covenant  to  the  country.  With  this  clear 
understanding  between  us,  I  made  my  pledges 
to  men  who,  in  supporting  me,  cast  aside 
equally  advantageous  relations  which  they 
might  have  established  with  another.  I  can't 
withdraw  now  without  dishonor." 

My  father  said:  ''Don't  let  us  have  any 
misunderstanding.  As  President  Woodruff 
stated  the  matter  to  me,  I  understood  that 
it  would  be  pleasing  to  the  Lord,  if  the  people 
desired  my  election  to  the  Senate  and  it 
wouldn't  antagonize  the  country." 

"Yes,  yes,"  the  President  put  in.  "That's 
what  I  mean." 

Smith  said,  rather  sourly:  "The  people  are 
always  willing  to  do  what  the  Lord  desires — 
if  no  one  gives  them  bad  counsel." 

Both  he  and  my  father  emphasized  the 
fact  that  the  business  interests  of  the  East 
were  making  strong  representations  to  the 
Presidency  in  support  of  my  father's  election; 
and  I  suspected  (what  I  afterwards  found  to 
be  the  case)  that  both  Joseph  F.  Smith  and 

163 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Apostle  John  Henry  Smith,  were  by  this  time, 
in  close  communication  with  Republican 
politicians.  There  was  a  calm  assumption, 
everywhere,  that  the  Church  had  power  to 
decide  the  election,  if  it  could  be  induced 
to  act ;  and  this  assumption  was  a  deplorable 
evidence,  to  me,  of  the  willingness  of  some  of 
our  former  allies  to  drag  us  swiftly  to  the 
shame  of  a  broken  covenant,  if  only  they  could 
profit  in  purse  or  politics  by  our  dishonor. 
I  would  not  be  an  agent  in  any  such  betrayal, 
but  I  had  to  refuse  without  offending  my 
father's  trust  in  the  divine  inspiration  of 
President  Woodruff's  decision  and  without 
aiding  the  Smiths  in  their  conspiracy. 

Either  at  this  conference  or  one  of  the  later 
ones,  two  or  three  apostles  came  into  the  room; 
and  among  them  was  Apostle  Brigham  Young, 
son  of  the  Prophet  Brigham  who  had  led  the 
Mormons  to  the  Salt  Lake  Valley.  When 
he  understood  my  refusal  to  abandon  my 
candidacy,  he  said  angrily:  "This  is  a  serious 
filial  disrespect.  I  know  my  father  never 
would  have  brooked  such  treatment  from 
me."  And  I  retorted:  "I  don't  know  who 
invited  you  into  this  conference,  but  I  deny 
your  right  to  instruct  me  in  my  filial  duty. 
If  my  father  doesn't  understand  that  the 
senatorship  has  lost  its  value  for  me — that 
it's  a  cross  now — then  my  whole  lifetime  of 
devotion  to  him  has  been  in  vain." 

My  father  rose  and  put  his  arm  around  my 

164 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

shoulders.  "This  boy,"  he  said,  "is  acting 
honorably.  I  want  him  to  know — and  you  to 
know — that  I  respect  the  position  he  has  taken. 
If  he  is  elected,  he  shall  have  my  blessing." 

That  was  the  only  understanding  I  had 
with  him — but  it  was  enough.  I  could  know 
that  I  was  not  to  lose  his  trust  and  affection 
by  holding  to  our  obligations  of  honor ;  and — 
an  assurance  almost  as  precious — I  could 
know  that  he  would  not  consciously  permit 
legislators  to  be  crushed  by  the  vengeance 
of  the  Church  if  they  refused  to  yield  to  its 
pressure. 

A  few  days  after  my  arrival  in  Utah,  and 
while  this  controversy  was  at  its  height,  my 
father's  birthday  was  celebrated  (January 
11,  1896),  with  all  the  patriarchal  pomp  of  a 
Mormon  family  gathering,  in  his  big  country 
house  outside  Salt  Lake  City.  All  his  de- 
scendants and  collateral  relatives  were  there, 
as  well  as  the  members  of  the  Presidency  and 
many  friends.  After  dinner,  the  usual  exer- 
cises of  the  occasion  were  held  in  the  large 
reception  hall  of  the  house,  with  President 
Woodruff  and  my  father  and  two  or  three 
other  Church  leaders  seated  in  semi-state 
at  one  end  of  the  hall,  and  the  others  of  the 
company  deferentially  withdrawn  to  face 
them.  Towards  the  end  of  the  programme 
President  Woodruff  rose  from  his  easy  chair, 
and  made  a  sort  of  informal  address  of  con- 
gratulation; and  in  the  course  of  it,  with  his 

165 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

hand  on  my  father's  shoulder,  he  said  be- 
nignly: "  Abraham  was  the  friend  of  God. 
He  had  only  one  son  on  whom  all  his  hopes 
were  set.  But  the  voice  of  the  Lord  com- 
manded him  to  sacrifice  Isaac  upon  an  altar; 
and  Abraham  trusted  the  Lord  and  laid  his 
son  upon  the  altar,  in  obedience  to  God's 
commands.  Now  here  is  another  servant 
of  the  Most  High  and  a  friend  of  God.  I 
refer  to  President  Cannon,  whose  birthday 
we  are  celebrating.  He  has  twenty-one  sons; 
and  if  it  shall  be  the  will  of  the  Lord  that  he 
must  sacrifice  one  of  them  he  ought  to  be  as 
willing  as  Abraham  was,  for  he  will  have 
twenty  left.  And  the  son  should  be  as  willing 
as  Isaac.  We  can  all  safely  trust  in  the  Lord. 
He  will  require  no  sacrifice  at  our  hands  with- 
out purpose." 

I  remarked  to  a  relative  beside  me  that 
the  altar  was  evidently  ready  for  me,  but  that 
I  feared  I  should  have  to  ''get  out  and  rustle 
my  own  ram  in  the  thicket."  I  received  no 
reply.  I  heard  no  word  of  comment  from 
anyone  upon  the  President's  speech.  It  was 
accepted  devoutly,  with  no  feeling  that  he 
had  abused  the  privileges  of  a  guest.  Every- 
one understood  (as  I  did)  that  President 
Woodruff  was  the  gentlest  of  men;  that  he 
had  often  professed  and  always  shown  a 
kindly  affection  for  me;  but  that  the  will  of 
the  Lord  being  now  known,  he  thought  I 
should  be  proud  to  be  sacrificed  to  it ! 

166 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Among  the  legislators  pledged  to  me  were 
Mormon  Bishops  and  other  ecclesiasts  who 
had  promised  their  constituents  to  vote  for 
me  and  who  now  stood  between  a  betrayal 
of  their  people  and  a  rebellion  against  the 
power  of  the  hierarchy.  I  released  one  of 
them  from  his  pledge,  because  of  his  pathetic 
fear  that  he  would  be  eternally  damned  if 
he  did  not  obey  "the  will  of  the  Lord."  The 
others  went  to  the  Presidency  to  admit  that 
if  they  betrayed  their  people  they  would  have 
to  confess  what  pressure  had  been  put  upon 
them  to  force  them  to  the  betrayal.  I  went 
to  notify  my  father  (as  I  had  notified  the 
representatives  of  every  other  candidate) 
that  we  were  going  to  call  a  caucus  of  the 
Republican  majority  of  the  legislature,  and 
later  I  was  advised  that  President  Woodruff 
and  his  Councillors  had  appointed  a  committee 
to  investigate  and  report  to  them  how  many 
members  could  be  counted  upon  to  support 
my  father's  candidacy.  The  committee  (com- 
posed of  my  uncle  Angus,  my  brother  Abra- 
ham, and  Apostle  John  Henry  Smith)  brought 
back  word  that  even  among  the  men  who  had 
professed  a  willingness  to  vote  for  my  father 
there  was  great  reluctance  and  apprehension, 
and  that  in  all  probability  his  election  could 
not  be  carried.  With  President  Woodruff's 
consent,  my  father  then  announced  that  he 
was  not  a  candidate.  I  was  nominated  by 
acclamation. 

167 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

When  I  called  upon  my  father  at  the  Presi- 
dent's offices  after  the  election,  he  said  to 
me  before  his  colleagues :  "I  wish  to  congratu- 
late you  on  having  acted  honorably  and  fear- 
lessly. You  have  my  blessing."  He  turned 
to  the  President.  "  You  see,  President  Wood- 
ruff," he  added,  "it  was  not  the  will  of  the 
Lord,  after  all,  since  the  people  did  not  desire 
my  election!" 

I  have  dwelt  so  largely  upon  the  religious 
aspects  of  this  affair  because  they  are  as  true 
of  the  Prophet  in  politics  today  as  they  were 
then.  At  the  time,  the  personal  complication 
of  the  situation  most  ^distressed  me — the 
fact  that  I  was  opposing  my  father  in  order 
to  fulfil  the  word  of  honor  that  we  had  given 
on  behalf  of  the  Mormon  leaders.  But  there 
was  another  view  of  the  matter;  and  it  is 
the  one  that  is  most  important  to  the  pur- 
poses of  this  narrative.  In  the  course  of  the 
various  discussions  and  conferences  upon 
the  Senatorship,  I  learned  that  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  whole  attempted  betrayal  had 
come  from  certain  Republican  politicians 
and  lobbyists  (like  Colonel  Isaac  Trumbo), 
who  claimed  to  represent  a  political  combina- 
tion of  business  interests  in  Washington. 
Joseph  F.  Smith  admitted  as  much  to  me  in 
more  than  one  conversation.  (I  had  offended 
these  interests  by  opposing  a  monetary  and  a 
tariff  bill  during  my  service  as  delegate  in 
Congress — a  matter  which  I  have  still  to 

168 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

recount).  They  had  chosen  my  father  and 
Colonel  Trumbo  as  Utah's  two  Senators. 
I  made  it  my  particular  business  to  see  that 
Trumbo 's  name  was  not  even  mentioned  in 
the  caucus.  The  man  selected  as  the  other 
senator  was  Arthur  Brown,  a  prominent 
Gentile  lawyer  who  was  known  as  a  "jack- 
Mormon"  (meaning  a  Gentile  adherent  to 
Church  power),  although  I  then  believed, 
and  do  now,  that  Judge  Chas.  C.  Goodwin 
was  the  Gentile  most  entitled  to  the  place, 
because  of  his  ability  and  the  love  of  his 
people. 

I  was,  however,  content  with  the  victory 
we  had  won  by  resisting  the  influence  of  the 
business  interests  that  had  been  willing  to 
sell  our  honor  for  their  profit,  and  I  set  out 
for  Washington  with  a  determination  to  con- 
tinue the  resistance.  I  was  in  a  good  posi- 
tion to  continue  it.  The  election  of  two 
Republican  Senators  from  Utah  had  given 
the  Republicans  a  scant  majority  of  the 
members  of  the  Upper  House,  and  the  bills 
that  I  had  fought  in  the  Lower  House  were 
now  before  the  Senate. 

These  bills  had  been  introduced  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  immediately  upon  its 
convening  in  December,  1895,  by  the  com- 
mittee on  rules,  before  Speaker  Reed  had 
even  appointed  the  general  committees. 
One  was  a  bill  to  authorize  the  issuance  of 
interest-bearing  securities  of  the  United  States 

169 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

at  such  times  and  in  such  sums  as  the  Execu- 
tive might  determine.  The  other  was  a 
general  tariff  bill  that  proposed  increases 
upon  the  then  existing  Wilson-Gorman  bill. 
The  first  would  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
President  a  power  that  was  not  enjoyed  by 
any  ruler  in  Christendom;  the  second  would 
add  to  the  unfair  and  discriminatory  tariff 
rates  then  in  force,  by  making  ad  valorem 
increases  in  them.  Many  new  members  of 
Congress  had  been  elected  on  the  two  issues 
thus  created:  the  arbitrary  increase  of  the 
bonded  indebtedness  by  President  Cleveland 
to  maintain  a  gold  reserve;  and  the  unjust 
benefits  afforded  those  industries  that  were 
least  in  need  of  aid,  by  duties  increased  in 
exact  proportion  to  the  strength  of  the  in- 
dustrial combination  that  was  to  be  protected. 
The  presentation  of  the  two  bills  by  the 
Committee  on  Rules — with  a  coacher  to  each 
proposing  to  prevent  amendment  and  limit 
discussion — raised  a  revolt  in  the  House.  A 
caucus  of  the  insurgent  Republican  members 
was  held  at  the  Ebbitt  Hotel,  and  I  was 
elected  temporary  chairman.  We  appointed 
a  committee  to  demand  from  Speaker  Reed 
a  division  of  the  questions  and  time  for  oppo- 
sition to  be  heard.  We  had  seventy-five 
insurgents  when  our  committee  waited  on 
Reed ;  and  most  of  us  were  new  men,  elected 
to  oppose  such  measures  as  these  bills  advo- 
cated. He  received  us  with  sarcasm,  put 

170 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

us  off  with  a  promise  to  consider  our  demands, 
and  then  set  his  lieutenants  at  work  among  us. 
Under  the  threat  of  the  Speaker's  displeasure 
if  we  continued  to  "insurge"  and  the  promise 
of  his  favor  if  we  "got  into  line,"  forty-one 
(I  think)  of  our  seventy-five  deserted  us. 
We  were  gloriously  beaten  in  the  House  on 
both  measures. 

Some  of  the  older  Republican  members 
of  the  House  came  to  ask  me  how  I  had  been 
"misled";  and  they  received  with  the  raised 
eyebrow  and  the  silent  shrug  my  explanation 
that  I  had  been  merely  following  my  con- 
victions and  living  up  to  the  promises  I  had 
made  my  constituents.  I  had  supposed  that 
I  was  upholding  an  orthodox  Republican 
doctrine  in  helping  to  defend  the  country 
from  exploitation  by  the  financial  interests, 
in  the  matter  of  the  bond  issue,  and  from  the 
greed  of  the  business  interests  in  the  attempt 
to  increase  horizontally  the  tariff  rates. 

I  do  not  need,  in  this  day  of  tariff  reform 
agitation,  to  argue  the  injustice  of  the  latter 
measure.  But  the  bond  issue — looking  back 
upon  it  now — seems  the  more  cruelly  absurd 
of  the  two.  Here  we  were,  in  times  of  peace, 
with  ample  funds  in  the  national  treasury, 
proposing  to  permit  the  unlimited  issuance 
of  interest-bearing  government  bonds  in  order 
to  procure  gold,  for  that  national  treasury, 
out  of  the  hoards  of  the  banks,  so  that  these 
same  banks  might  be  able  to  obtain  the  gold 

171 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

again  from  the  treasury  in  return  for  paper 
money.  The  extent  to  which  this  sort  of 
absurdity  might  be  carried  would  depend 
solely  upon  the  desire  of  the  confederation 
of  finance  to  have  interest-bearing  government 
bonds  on  which  they  might  issue  national 
bank  notes,  since  the  Executive  was  appar- 
ently willing  to  yield  interminably  to  their 
greed,  in  the  belief  that  he  was  protecting 
the  public  credit  by  encouraging  the  financiers 
to  attack  that  credit  with  their  raids  on  the 
government  gold  reserve.  The  whole  diffi- 
culty had  arisen,  of  course,  out  of  the  agita- 
tion upon  the  money  question.  The  banks 
were  drawing  upon  the  government  gold 
reserve;  and  the  government  was  issuing 
bonds  to  recover  the  gold  again  from  the 
banks. 

I  had  been,  for  some  years,  interested  in 
the  problem  of  our  monetary  system  and  had 
studied  and  discussed  it  among  our  Eastern 
bankers  and  abroad.  The  very  fact  that  I 
was  from  a  "silver  state"  had  put  me  on  my 
guard,  lest  a  local  influence  should  lead  me 
into  economic  error.  I  had  grown  into  the 
belief  that  our  system  was  wrong.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  some  remedy  was  imperative. 
I  saw  in  bimetallism  a  part  of  the  remedy, 
and  I  supported  bimetallism  not  as  a  partisan 
of  free  coinage  but  as  an  advocate  of  monetary 
reform. 

The  arrival  of  Utah's  two  representatives 

172 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

in  the  Senate  (January  27,  1896)  gave  the 
bimetallists  a  majority,  and  when  the  bond- 
issue  bill  came  before  us  we  made  it  into  a 
bill  to  permit  the  free  coinage  of  silver. 
(February  1) .  A  few  days  later,  the  Finance 
Committee  turned  the  tariff  bill  into  a  free- 
coinage  bill  also.  On  both  maasures,  five 
Republican  Senators  voted  against  their 
party — Henry  M.  Teller,  of  Colorado;  Fred 
T.  Dubois,  of  Idaho;  Thos.  H.  Carter,  of 
Montana;  Lee  Mantle,  of  Montana;  and 
myself.  We  were  subsequently  joined  by 
Richard  F.  Pettigrew  of  South  Dakota. 
Within  two  weeks  of  my  taking  the  oath  in 
the  Senate  we  were  read  out  of  the  party 
by  Republican  leaders  and  Republican  organs. 

All  this  happened  so  swiftly  that  there  was 
no  time  for  any  remonstrances  to  come  to  me 
from  Salt  Lake  City,  even  if  the  Church  author- 
ities had  wished  to  remonstrate.  The  fact 
was  that  the  people  of  Utah  were  with  us  in 
our  insurgency,  and  when  the  financial  inter- 
ests subsequently  appealed  to  the  hierarchy, 
they  found  the  Church  powerless  to  aid  them 
in  support  of_  a  gold  platform.  But  they 
obtained  that  aid,  at  last,  in  support  of  a 
tariff  that  was  as  unjust  to  the  people  as  it 
was  favorable  to  the  trusts,  and  my  continued 
1  'insurgency"  led  me  again  into  a  revolt 
against  Church  interference. 

The  thread  of  connection  that  ran  through 
these  incidents  is  clear  enough  to  me  now: 

173 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

they  were  all  incidents  in  the  progress  of  a 
partnership  between  the  Church  and  the 
predatory  business  interests  that  have  since 
so  successfully  exploited  the  country.  But, 
at  the  time,  I  saw  no  such  connection  clearly. 
I  supposed  that  the  partnership  was  merely 
a  political  friendship  between  the  Smith 
faction  in  the  Church  and  the  Republican 
politicians  who  wished  to  use  the  Church; 
and  I  had  sufficient  contempt  for  the  political 
abilities  of  the  Smiths  to  regard  their  con- 
spiracy rather  lightly. 

Believing  still  in  the  good  faith  of  the  Mor- 
mon people  and  their  real  leaders  in  authority, 
I  introduced  a  joint  resolution  in  the  Senate 
restoring  to  the  Church  its  escheated  real 
estate,  which  was  still  in  the  hands  of  a  re- 
ceiver, although  its  personal  property  had 
been  already  restored.  In  conference  with 
Senators  Hoar  and  Allison, — of  the  committee 
to  which  the  resolution  was  referred — I  urged 
an  unconditional  restoration  of  the  property, 
arguing  that  to  place  conditions  upon  the 
restoration  would  be  to  insult  the  people  who 
had  given  so  many  proofs  of  their  willingness 
to  obey  the  law  and  keep  their  pledges.  The 
property  was  restored  without  conditions  by 
a  joint  resolution  that  passed  the  Senate  on 
March  18,  1896,  passed  the  House  a  week 
later,  and  was  approved  by  the  President  on 
March  26.  The  Church  was  now  free  of  the 
last  measure  of  proscription.  Its  people  were 

174 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

in  the  enjoyment  of  every  political  liberty 
of  American  citizenship;  and  I  joined  in  the 
Presidential  campaign  of  1896  with  no  thought 
of  any  danger  threatening  us  that  was  not  com- 
mon to  the  other  communities  of  the  country. 

But  before  I  continue  further  with  these 
political  events,  I  must  relate  a  private  inci- 
dent in  the  secret  betrayal  of  Utah — an  in- 
cident that  must  be  related,  if  this  narrative 
is  to  remain  true  to  the  ideals  of  public  duty 
that  have  thus  far  assumed  to  inspire  it — 
an  incident  of  which  a  false  account  was  given 
before  a  Senate  Committee  in  Washington 
during  the  Smoot  investigation  of  1904, 
accompanied  by  a  denial  of  responsibility 
by  Joseph  F.  Smith,  the  man  whose  authority 
alone  encouraged  and  accomplished  the  trag- 
edy— for  it  was  a  tragedy,  as  dark  in  its  im- 
port to  the  Mormon  community  as  it  was 
terrible  in  its  immediate  consequences  to  all 
our  family. 

By  his  denial  of  responsibility  and  by  secret 
whisper  within  the  Church,  Smith  has  placed 
the  disgrace  of  the  betrayal  upon  my  father, 
who  was  guiltless  of  it,  and  blackened  the 
memory  of  my  dead  brother  by  a  misrepre- 
sentation of  his  motives.  I  feel  that  it  is 
incumbent  upon  me,  therefore,  at  whatever 
pain  to  myself,  to  relate  the  whole  unhappy 
truth  of  the  affair,  as  much  to  defend  the 
memory  of  the  dead  as  to  denounce  the  be- 
trayal of  the  living,  to  expose  a  public  treason 

175 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

against  the  community  not  less  than  to  correct 
a  private  wrong  done  to  the  good  name  of 
those  whom  it  is  my  right  to  defend. 

Late  in  July,  1896,  when  I  was  in  New  York 
on  business  for  the  Presidency,  I  received  a 
telegram  announcing  the  death  of  my  brother, 
Apostle  Abraham  H.  Cannon.  We  had  been 
companions  all  our  lives;  he  had  been  the 
nearest  to  me  of  our  family,  the  dearest  of 
my  friends — but  even  in  the  first  shock  of 
my  grief  I  realized  that  my  father  would  have 
a  greater  stroke  of  sorrow  to  bear  than  I; 
and  in  hurrying  back  to  Salt  Lake  City  I 
nerved  myself  with  the  hope  that  I  might 
console  him. 

I  found  him  and  Joseph  F.  Smith  in  the 
office  of  the  Presidency,  sitting  at  their  desks. 
My  father  turned  as  I  entered,  and  his  face 
was  unusually  pale  in  spite  of  its  composure; 
but  the  moment  he'recognized  me,  his  expres- 
sion^changed  to  a  look  of  pain  that  alarmed 
me.  He  rose  and  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder 
with  a  tenderness  that  it  was  his  habit  to 
conceal.  "I  know  how  you  feel  his  loss,"  he 
said  hoarsely,  "but  when  I  think  what  he 
would  have  had  to  pass  through  if  he  had 
lived — I  cannot  regret  his  death." 

The  almost  agonized  expression  of  his  face, 
as  much'  'as  the  terrible  implication  of  his 
words,  startled  me  with  I  cannot  say  what 
horrible  fear  about  my  brother.  I  asked, 
"Why!  Why— what  has  happened?" 

176 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

With  a  sweep  of  his  hand  toward  Smith  at 
his  desk — a  gesture  and  a  look  the  most  un- 
kind I  ever  saw  him  use — he  answered:  "A 
few  weeks  ago,  Abraham  took  a  plural  wife, 
Lillian  Hamlin.  It  became  known.  He 
would  have  had  to  face  a  prosecution  in 
Court.  His  death  has  saved  us  from  a 
calamity  that  would  have  been  dreadful  for 
the  Church — and  for  the  state." 

11  Father!"  I  cried.  "Has  this  thing  come 
back  again!  And  the  ink  hardly  dry  on  the 
bill  that  restored  your  church  property  on 
the  pledge  of  honor  that  there  would  never 
be  another  case — "  I  had  caught  the  look 
on  Smith's  face,  and  it  was  a  look  of  sullen 
defiance.  "How  did  it  happen?" 

My  father  replied:  "I  know — it's  awful. 
I  would  have  prevented  it  if  I  could.  I  was 
asked  for  my  consent,  and  I  refused  it.  Presi- 
dent Smith  obtained  the  acquiescence  of 
President  Woodruff,  on  the  plea  that  it  wasn't 
an  ordinary  case  of  polygamy  but  merely  a 
fulfilment  of  the  biblical  instruction  that  a 
man  should  take  his  dead  brother's  wife. 
Lillian  was  betrothed  to  David,  and  had  been 
sealed  to  him  in  eternity  after  his  death.  I 
understand  that  President  Woodruff  told 
Abraham  he  would  leave  the  matter  with 
them  if  he  wished  to  take  the  responsibility — 
and  President  Smith  performed  the  cere- 
mony." 

Smith  could  hear  every  word  that  was  said. 

177 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

My  father  had  included  him  in  the  conversa- 
tion, and  he  was  listening.  He  not  only  did 
not  deny  his  guilt;  he  accepted  it  in  silence, 
with  an  expression  of  sulky  disrespect. 

He  did  not  deny  it  later,  when  the  whole 
community  had  learned  of  it.  He  went  with 
Apostle  John  Henry  Smith  to  see  Mr.  P.  H. 
Lannan,  proprietor  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune, 
to  ask  him  not  to  attack  the  Church  for  this 
new  and  shocking  violation  of  its  covenant. 
Mr.  Lannan  had  been  intimately  friendly 
with  my  brother,  and  he  was  distressed  be- 
tween his  regard  for  his  dead  friend  and  his 
obligation  to  do  his  public  duty.  I  do  not 
know  all  that  the  Smiths  said  to  him;  but 
I  Know  that  the  conversation  assumed  that 
Joseph  F.  Smith  had  performed  the  marriage 
ceremony;  I  know  that  neither  of  the  Smiths 
made  any  attempt  to  deny  the  assumption; 
and  I  know  that  Joseph  F.  Smith  sought  to 
placate  Mr.  Lannan  by  promising  "it  shall 
not  occur  again."  And  this  interview  was 
sought  by  the  Smiths,  palpably  because 
wherever  the  marriage  of  Abraham  H.  Can- 
non and  Lillian  Hamlin  was  talked  of,  Joseph 
F.  Smith  was  named  as  the  priest  who  had 
solemnized  the  offending  relation.  If  it  had 
not  been  for  Smith's  consciousness  of  his  own 
guilt  and  his  knowledge  that  the  whole  com- 
munity was  aware  of  that  guilt,  he  wrould 
never  have  gone  to  the  Tribune  office  to  make 
such  a  promise  to  Mr.  Lannan. 

178 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

All  of  which  did  not  prevent  Joseph  F. 
Smith  from  testifying — in  the  Smoot  investi- 
gation at  Washington  in  1904 — that  he  did 
not  marry  Abraham  Cannon  and  Lillian 
Hamlin,  that  he  did  not  have  any  conversa- 
tion with  my  father  about  the  marriage,  that 
he  did  not  know  Lillian  Hamlin  had  been 
betrothed  to  Abraham's  dead  brother,  that 
the  first  time  he  heard  of  the  charge  that  he 
had  married  them  was  when  he  saw  it  printed 
in  the  newspapers!* 

If  this  first  polygamous  marriage  had  been 
the  last — if  it  were  an  isolated  and  peculiar 
incident  as  the  Smiths  then  claimed  it  was 
and  promised  it  should  be — it  might  be  for- 
given as  generously  now  as  Mr.  Lannan  then 
forgave  it.  But,  about  the  same  time  there 
became  public  another  case — that  of  Apostle 
Teasdale — and  as  this  narrative  shall  prove, 
here  was  the  beginning  of  a  policy  of  treachery 
which  the  present  Church  leaders,  under 
Joseph  F.  Smith,  have  since  consistently 
practised,  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  the  state 
and  the  "  revelation  of  God,"  with  lies  and 
evasions,  with  perjury  and  its  subornation, 
in  violation  of  the  most  solemn  pledges  to  the 
country,  and  through  the  agency  of  a  political 
tyranny  that  makes  serious  prosecution  im- 
possible and  immunity  a  public  boast. 

The  world  understands  that  polygamy  is 

*See  Proceedings  before  Senate  Committee  on  Privileges 
and  Elections,  1904,  Vol.  1,  pages  110,  126,  177,  etc. 

179 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

an  enslavement  of  women.  The  ecclesiastical 
authorities  in  Utah  today  have  discovered 
that  it  is  more  powerful  as  an  enslaver  of  men. 
Once  a  man  is  bound  in  a  polygamous  rela- 
tion, there  is  no  place  for  him  in  the  civilized 
world  outside  of  a  Mormon  community.  He 
must  remain  there,  shielded  by  the  Church, 
or  suffer  elsewhere  social  ostracism  and  the 
prosecution  of  bigamous  relations.  Since 
1890,  the  date  of  the  manifesto  (and  it  is  to 
the  period  since  1890  that  my  criticism  solely 
applies)  the  polygamist  must  be  abjectly 
subservient  to  the  prophets  who  protect  him; 
he  must  obey  their  orders  and  do  their  work, 
or  endure  the  punishment  which  they  can 
inflict  upon  him  and  his  wives  and  his  children. 
Inveigled  into  a  plural  marriage  by  the  author- 
ity of  a  clandestine  religious  dogma — en- 
couraged by  his  elders,  seduced  by  the  pros- 
pect of  their  favor,  and  impelled  perhaps  by 
a  daring  impulse  to  take  the  covenant  and 
bond  that  shall  swear  him  into  the  dangerous 
fellowship  of  the  lawlessly  faithful — he  finds 
himself,  at  once,  a  law  breaker  who  must  pay 
the  Church  hierarchy  for  his  protection  by 
yielding  to  them  every  political  right,  every 
personal  independence,  every  freedom  of 
opinion,  every  liberty  of  act. 

I  do  not  believe  that  Smith  fully  foresaw 
the  policy  which  he  has  since  undoubtedly 
pursued.  I  believe  now,  as  I  did  then,  that 
in  betraying  my  brother  into  polygamy  Smith 

180 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

was  actuated  by  his  anger  against  my  father 
for  having  inspired  the  recession  from  the 
doctrine ;  that  he  desired  to  impair  the  success 
of  the  recession  by  having  my  brother  dignify 
the  recrudescence  of  polygamy  by  the  apos- 
tolic sanction  of  his  participation;  and  that 
this  participation  was  jealously  designed  by 
Smith  to  avenge  himself  upon  the  First  Coun- 
cillor by  having  the  son  be  one  of  the  first  to 
break  the  law,  and  violate  the  covenant. 
I  saw  that  my  brother's  death  had  thwarted 
the  conspiracy.  Smith  was  so  obviously 
frightened — despite  his  pretence  of  defiance — 
that  I  believed  he  had  learned  his  needed 
lesson.  And  I  accepted  the  incident  as  a 
private  tragedy  on  which  the  final  curtain 
had  now  fallen. 


181 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  INTERESTS 

Meanwhile,  I  had  been  taking  part  in  the 
Presidential  campaign  of  1896,  and  I  had 
been  one  of  the  four  " insurgent"  Republican 
Senators  (Teller  of  Colorado,  Dubois  of  Idaho, 
Pettigrew  of  South  Dakota  and  myself)  who 
withdrew  from  the  national  Republican  con- 
vention at  St.  Louis,  in  fulfilment  of  our 
obligations  to  our  constituents,  when  we  found 
that  the  convention  was  dominated  by  that 
confederation  of  finance  in  politics  which  has 
since  come  to  be  called  "  the  System."  I  was 
a  member  of  the  committee  on  resolutions, 
and  our  actions  in  the  committee  had  indi- 
cated that  we  would  probably  withdraw  from 
the  convention  if  it  adopted  the  single  gold 
platform  as  dictated  by  Senator  Lodge  of 
Massachusetts  acting  for  a  group  of  Repub- 
lican leaders  headed  by  Platt  of  New  York, 
and  Aldrich  of  Rhode  Island.  At  the  most 
critical  point  of  our  controversy  I  received  a 
message  from  Church  headquarters  warning 
me  that  "we"  had  made  powerful  friends 
among  the  leading  men  of  the  nation  and  that 
we  ought  not  to  jeopardize  their  friendship 
by  an  inconsiderate  insurgency.  Accordingly, 
in  bolting  the  convention,  I  was  guilty  of  a 

182 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

new  defiance  of  ecclesiastical  authority  and  a 
new  provocation  of  ecclesiastical  vengeance. 

President  Woodruff  spoke  to  me  of  the 
matter  after  I  returned  to  Utah,  and  I  ex- 
plained to  him  that  I  thought  the  Republican 
party,  under  the  leadership  of  Mark  Hanna 
and  the  flag  of  the  "interests,"  had  forgotten 
its  duty  to  the  people  of  the  nation.  I  argued, 
to  the  President,  that  of  all  people  in  the  world 
we,  who  had  suffered  so  much  ourselves,  were 
most  bound  to  bow  to  no  unfairness  ourselves 
and  to  oppose  the  imposition  of  unfairness 
upon  others.  And  I  talked  in  this  strain  to 
him  not  because  I  wished  his  approval  of 
my  action  but  because  I  wished  to  fortify 
him  against  the  approach  of  the  emissaries 
of  the  new  Republicanism,  who  were  sure  to 
come  to  him  to  seek  the  support  of  the  Church 
in  the  campaign. 

Some  days  later,  while  I  was  talking  with 
my  father  in  the  offices  of  the  Presidency, 
the  secretary  ushered  in  Senator  Redfield 
Proctor  of  Vermont.  I  withdrew,  under- 
standing that  he  wished  to  speak  in  private 
with  President  Woodruff  and  his  councillors. 
But  I  learned  subsequently  that  he  had  come 
to  Salt  Lake  to  persuade  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  to  use  their  power  in  favor  of  the 
Republican  party  throughout  the  intermoun- 
tain  states. 

Senator  Proctor  asked  me  personally  what 
chance  I  thought  the  party  had  in  the  West. 

183 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  pointed  out  that  the  Republican  platform 
of  1892  had  reproached  Grover  Cleveland  for 
his  antagonism  to  bimetallism — "a  doctrine 
favored  by  the  American  people  from  tradi- 
tion and  interest,"  to  quote  the  language 
of  that  platform — and  the  Republicans  of 
the  intermountain  states  still  held  true  to  the 
doctrine.  It  had  been  repudiated  by  the 
St.  Louis  platform  of  June,  1896,  and  the 
intermountain  states  would  probably  refuse 
their  electoral  votes  to  the  Republican  party 
because  of  the  repudiation. 

Senator  Proctor  thought  that  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  were  powerful  enough  to  control 
the  votes  of  their  followers;  and  he  argued 
that  gratitude  to  the  Republican  party  for 
freeing  Utah  ought  to  be  stronger  than  the 
opinions  of  the  people  in  a  merely  economic 
question. 

I  reminded  him  that  one  of  our  covenants 
had  been  that  the  Church  was  to  refrain  from 
dictating  to  its  followers  in  politics;  that  we 
had  been  steadily  growing  away  from  the 
absolutism  of  earlier  times;  and  that  for  the 
sake  of  the  peace  and  progress  of  Utah  I  hoped 
that  the  leaders  would  keep  their  hands  off. 
I  did  not,  of  course,  convince  him.  Nor  was 
it  necessary.  I  was  sure  that  no  power  that 
the  Church  would  dare  to  use  would  be  suffi- 
cient at  this  time  to  influence  the  people 
against  their  convictions. 

Joseph  F.  Smith,  soon  afterward,  notified 

184 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

me  that  there  was  to  be  a  meeting  of  the 
Church  authorities  in  the  Temple,  and  he 
asked  me  to  attend  it.  Since  I  had  never 
before  been  invited  to  one  of  these  confer- 
ences in  the  "holy  of  holies,"  I  inquired  the 
purposes  of  the  conclave.  He  replied  that 
they  desired  to  consider  the  situation  in  which 
our  people  had  been  placed  by  my  action  in 
the  St.  Louis  convention,  and  to  discuss  the 
perceptible  trend  of  public  opinion  in  the 
state.  I  saw,  then,  that  Senator  Proctor's 
visit  had  not  been  without  avail. 

On  the  appointed  afternoon,  I  went  to  the 
sacred  inner  room  of  the  temple,  where  the 
members  of  the  Presidency  and  several  of 
the  apostles  were  waiting.  I  shall  not  de- 
scribe the  room  or  any  of  the  religious  cere- 
monies with  which  the  conference  was  opened. 
I  shall  confine  myself  to  the  discussion — 
which  was  begun  mildly  by  President  Wood- 
ruff and  Lorenzo  Snow,  then  president  of 
the  quorum  of  apostles. 

To  my  great  surprise,  Joseph  F.  Smith 
made  a  violent  Republican  speech,  declaring 
that  I  had  humiliated  the  Church  and  alien- 
ated its  political  friends  by  withdrawing  from 
the  St.  Louis  convention.  He  was  followed 
by  Heber  J.  Grant,  an  apostle,  who  had  always 
posed  as  a  Democrat;  and  he  was  as  Repub- 
lican and  denunciatory  as  Smith  had  been. 
He  declaimed  against  our  alienation  of  the 
great  business  interests  of  the  country,  whose 

185 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

friendship  he  and  other  prominent  Mormons 
had  done  so  much  to  cultivate,  and  from  whom 
we  might  now  procure  such  advantageous 
co-operation  if  we  stood  by  them  in  politics. 
President  Woodruff  tried  to  defend  me 
by  saying  that  he  was  sure  I  had  acted  con- 
scientiously; but  by  this  time  I  desired  no 
intervention  of  prophetic  mercy  and  no  miti- 
gation of  judgment  that  might  come  of  such 
intervention.  As  soon  as  the  President  an- 
nounced that  they  were  prepared  to  hear 
from  me,  I  rose  and  walked  to  the  farther 
side  of  the  solemn  chamber,  withdrawn  from 
the  assembled  prophets  and  confronting  them. 
Having  first  disavowed  any  recognition  of 
their  right  as  an  ecclesiastical  body  to  direct 
me  in  my  political  actions,  I  rehearsed  the 
events  of  the  two  campaigns  in  which  I  had 
been  elected  on  pledges  that  I  had  fulfilled  by 
my  course  in  Congress,  in  the  Senate,  and 
finally  in  the  St.  Louis  convention.  That 
course  had  been  approved  by  the  people. 
They  had  trusted  me  to  carry  out  the  policies 
on  which  they  had  elected  me  to  Congress. 
They  had  reiterated  the  trust  by  electing  me 
to  the  Senate  after  I  had  revolted  against 
the  Republican  bond  and  tariff  measures  in 
the  lower  House.  I  could  not  and  would 
not  violate  their  trust  now.  And  there  was 
no  authority  on  earth  which  I  would  recognize 
as  empowered  to  come  between  the  people's 
will  and  the  people's  elected  servants. 

186 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

The  prophets  received  this  defiance  in 
silence.  Their  expressions  implied  condem- 
nation, but  none  was  spoken — at  least  not 
while  I  was  there.  President  Woodruff  indi- 
cated that  the  conference  was  at  an  end,  so 
far  as  I  was  concerned;  and  I  withdrew. 
Some  attempts  were  subsequently  made  to 
influence  the  people  during  the  campaign, 
but  in  a  half-hearted  way  and  vainly.  The 
Democrats  carried  Utah  overwhelmingly; 
only  three  Republican  members  of  the  legis- 
lature were  elected  out  of  sixty-three. 

It  was  this  conference  in  the  Temple  which 
gave  me  my  first  realization  that  most  of  the 
Prophets  had  not,  and  never  would  have, 
any  feeling  of  citizenship  in  state  or  nation; 
that  they  considered,  and  would  continue 
to  consider,  every  public  issue  solely  in  its 
possible  effect  upon  the  fortunes  of  their 
Church.  My  father  alone  seemed  to  have  a 
larger  view;  but  he  was  a  statesman  of  full 
worldly  knowledge;  and  his  experience  in 
Congress,  during  a  part  of  the  "  reconstruction 
period,"  and  throughout  the  Tilden-Hayes 
controversy,  had  taught  him  how  effectively 
the  national  power  could  assert  itself.  The 
others,  blind  to  such  dangers,  seemed  to  feel 
that  under  Utah's  sovereignty  the  literal 
"kingdom  of  God"  (as  they  regard  their 
Church)  was  to  exercise  an  undisputed  au- 
thority. Unable,  myself,  to  take  their  view- 
point, I  was  conscious  of  a  sense  of  transgres- 

187 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

sion  against  the  orthodoxy  of  their  religion. 
I  was  aware,  for  the  first  time,  that  in  gaining 
the  fraternity  of  American  citizenship  I  had 
in  some  way  lost  the  fraternity  of  the  faith 
in  which  I  had  been  reared.  I  accepted  this 
as  a  necessary  consequence  of  our  new  freedom 
—a  freedom  that  left  us  less  close  and  un- 
yielding in  our  religious  loyalty  by  withdraw- 
ing the  pressure  that  had  produced  our  com- 
pactness. And  I  hoped  that,  in  time,  the 
Prophets  themselves — or,  at  least,  their  suc- 
cessors— would  grow  into  a  more  liberal  sense 
of  citizenship  as  their  people  grew.  I  knew 
that  our  progress  must  be  a  process  of  evolu- 
tion. I  v/as  content  to  wait  upon  the  slow 
amendments  of  time. 

My  hope  carried  me  through  the  dishearten- 
ing incidents  of  the  Senatorial  campaign  that 
followed  upon  the  election  of  the  legislature — 
a  campaign  in  which  the  power  of  the  hie- 
rarchy was  used  publicly  to  defeat  the  deposed 
apostle,  Moses  Thatcher,  in  his  second  can- 
didacy for  the  United  States  Senate.  But 
the  Church  only  succeeded  in  defeating  him  by 
throwing  its  influence  to  Joseph  L.  Rawlins, 
whom  the  Prophets  loved  as  little  as  they 
loved  Thatcher;  and  I  felt  that  in  Rawlins' 
election  the  state  at  least  gained  a  representa- 
tive who  was  worthy  of  it. 

What  was  quite  as  sinister  a  use  of  Church 
influence  occurred  among  the  Mormons  of 
Idaho,  where  I  went  to  help  Senator  Fred.  T. 

188 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Dubois  in  his  campaign  for  re-election.  He 
had  aided  us  in  obtaining  Utah's  statehood 
as  much  as  any  man  in  Washington.  He  had 
accepted  all  the  promises  of  the  Mormon 
leaders  in  good  faith — particularly  their 
promise  that  no  Church  influence  should 
intrude  upon  the  politics  of  Idaho.  Yet  in 
his  campaign  I  was  followed  through  the 
Mormon  settlements  by  Charles  W.  Penrose, 
a  polygamist,  since  an  apostle  of  the  Church, 
and  at  that  time  editor  of  the  Church's  official 
organ,  the  Deseret  News. 

I  supposed  that  he  was  lying  in  his  claim 
to  represent  the  Presidency;  and  as  soon  as 
I  returned  to  Salt  Lake,  I  went  to  Church 
headquarters  and  asked  whether  Penrose 
had  been  authorized  to  say  (as  he  had  been 
saying)  that  he  was  sent  out  to  prevent  my 
making  any  misrepresentations  of  the  political 
attitude  of  the  Presidency. 

Joseph  F.  Smith  replied,  "  Yes,"-— speaking 
for  himself  and  apparently  for  President 
Woodruff. 

"And  when"-— I  demanded — "when  did 
I  ever  claim  to  represent  or  misrepresent  you 
in  politics  ?  Haven't  I  always  said  that  I 
don't  recognize  you  as  politicians — and  always 
denied  that  you  have  any  right  to  dictate  the 
politics  of  our  people?" 

President  Woodruff  interposed  gently: 
"  Well,  you  know,  Frank,  we  have  no  criticism 
to  pass  on  you,  but  we  were  advised  that  you 

189 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

might  tell  the  voters  of  Idaho  we  were  friendly 
to  Senator  Dubois,  and  so  we  sent  Brother 
Penrose,  at  the  request  of  President  Budge" 
(a  Mormon  stake  president  in  Idaho)  "to 
counsel  our  people.  And  Brother  Penrose 
says  you  attacked  him  in  one  of  your  meetings, 
and  said  he  was  not  a  trustworthy  political 
guide." 

President  Woodruff's  mildness  was  always 
irresistible.  "  If  that's  all  he  told  you  I  said 
about  him,"  I  replied,  "he  didn't  do  justice 
to  my  remarks."  And  I  explained  that  I  had 
described  Penrose  as  "  a  lying,  oily  hypocrite," 
come  to  advise  the  Idaho  Mormons  that  the 
Presidency  wished  them  to  vote  a  certain 
political  ticket  although  the  Presidency  had 
no  interest  in  the  question  and  although  I 
myself  had  taken  to  Washington  the  Presi- 
dency's covenant  of  honor  that  the  Church 
would  never  attempt  to  interfere  in  Idaho's 
political  affairs. 

Smith  sprang  to  his  feet  angrily.  "  I  don't 
care  what  has  been  promised  to  Dubois  or 
anyone  else,"  he  said.  "  He  was  the  bitterest 
enemy  our  people  had  in  the  old  days,  and 
I'll  never  give  my  countenance  to  him  in 
politics  while  the  world  stands.  He /sent 
many  a  one  of  our  brethren  to  prison  when 
he  was  marshal  of  the  territory,  and  I  can't 
forget  his  devilish  persecutions — even  if  you 


can." 


I    closed   the   conversation   by   remarking 
190 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

that  not  one  among  us  would  have  had  a  vote 
as  a  citizen  either  of  Utah  or  of  Idaho  if 
Dubois  and  men  of  his  kind  had  not  accepted 
our  pledges  of  honor;  and  if  we  were  deter- 
mined to  remember  the  persecutions  and  not 
the  mercy,  we  ought  to  go  back  to  the  con- 
ditions from  which  mercy  had  rescued  us. 

I  left  for  Washington,  soon  after,  with  an 
unhappy  apprehension  that  there  were  evil 
influences  at  work  in  Utah  which  might  prove 
powerful  enough  to  involve  the  whole  com- 
munity in  the  worst  miseries  of  reaction. 
I  saw  those  influences  embodied  in  Joseph  F. 
Smith;  and  because  he  was  explosive  where 
others  were  reflective,  he  had  now  more  in- 
fluence than  previously — there  being  no  longer 
any  set  resistance  to  him.  The  reverence  of 
the  Mormon  people  for  the  name  of  Smith 
was  (as  it  had  always  been)  his  chief  asset 
of  popularity.  He  had  a  superlative  physical 
impressiveness  and  a  passion  that  seemed  to 
take  the  place  of  magnetism  in  public  address. 
But  he  never  said  anything  memorable;  he 
never  showed  any  compelling  ability  of  mind ; 
he  had  a  personal  cunning  without  any  large 
intelligence,  and  he  was  so  many  removes 
from  the  First  Presidency  that  it  seemed 
unlikely  he  would  soon  attain  to  that  position 
of  which  the  power  is  so  great  that  it  only 
makes  the  blundering  more  dangerous  than 
the  astute. 

I  was  going  to  Washington,  before  Congress 

191 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

reconvened,  to  confer  with  Senator  Redfield 
Proctor.  He  wished  to  see  me  about  the  new 
protective  tariff  bill  that  was  proposed  by  the 
Republican  leaders.  I  wished  to  ask  him 
not  to  use  his  political  influence  in  Idaho 
against  Senator  Fred.  T.  Dubois,  who  had 
been  Senator  Proctor's  political  protege. 
I  knew  that  Senator  Proctor  had  once  been 
given  a  semi-official  promise  that  the  Mormon 
Church  leaders  would  not  interfere  in  Idaho 
against  Dubois.  I  wished  to  tell  Proctor 
that  this  promise  was  not  being  kept,  and  to 
plead  with  him  to  give  Dubois  fair  play— 
although  I  knew  that  Senator  Dubois'  "  in- 
surgency" had  offended  Senator  Proctor. 

He  received  me,  in  his  home  in  Washington, 
with  an  almost  paternal  kindliness  that  be- 
came sometimes  more  dictatorial  than  per- 
suasive— as  the  manner  of  an  older  Senator 
is  so  apt  to  be  when  he  wishes  to  correct  the 
independence  of  a  younger  colleague.  He 
explained  that  the  House  was  Republican 
by  a  considerable  majority;  a  good  protective 
tariff  bill  would  come  from  that  body;  and 
a  careful  canvass  of  the  Senate  had  pioved 
that  the  bill  would  pass  there,  if  I  would  vote 
for  it.  "  We  have  within  one  vote  of  a  major- 
ity," he  said.  "As  you're  a  devoted  protec- 
tionist in  your  views — as  your  state  is  for 
protection — as  your  father  and  your  people 
feel  grateful  to  the  Republican  party  for  lead- 
ing you  out  of  the  wilderness — I  have  felt  that 

192 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

it  was  proper  to  appeal  to  you  and  learn  your 
views  definitely.  If  you'll  pledge  your  sup- 
port to  the  bill,  we  shall  not  look  elsewhere 
for  a  vote — but  it's  essential  that  we  should 
be  secure  of  a  majority." 

I  replied  that  I  could  not  promise  to  vote 
for  the  measure  until  I  should  see  it.  It  was 
true  that  I  had  been  a  devoted  advocate  of 
protection  and  still  believed  in  the  principle; 
but  I  had  learned  something  of  the  way  in 
which  tariff  bills  were  framed,  and  something 
of  the  influences  that  controlled  the  party 
councils  in  support  of  them.  I  could  not 
be  sure  that  the  new  measure  would  be  any 
more  just  than  the  original  Dingley  bill,  which 
I  had  helped  to  defeat  in  the  Senate ;  and  the 
way  in  which  this  bill  had  been  driven  through 
the  House  was  a  sufficient  warning  to  me  not 
to  harness  myself  in  a  pledge  that  might  be 
misused  in  legislation. 

Senator  Proctor  did  me  the  honor  to  say 
that  he  did  not  suppose  any  improper  sug- 
gestion of  personal  advantage  could  influence 
me,  and  he  hoped  I  knew  him  too  well  to 
suppose  that  he  would  use  such  an  argument ; 
"but,"  he  added,  "anything  that  it's  within 
the  'political'  power  of  the  party  to  bestow, 
you  may  expect;  I'm  authorized  to  say  that 
we  will  take  care  of  you." 

As  I  still  refused  to  bind  myself  blindly,  he 
said,  with  regret:  "We  had  great  hopes  of 
you,  It  seems  that  we  must  look  elsewhere. 

193 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  will  leave  the  question  open.  If  you  con- 
clude to  assure  us  of  your  vote  for  the  bill, 
I  shall  see  that  you  are  restored  to  a  place 
in  Republican  councils.  If  I  do  not  hear 
anything  from  you,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
address  ourselves  to  one  or  two  other  Senators 
who  are  probably  available." 

It  is,  of  course,  a  doctrine  of  present-day 
Republicanism  that  the  will  of  the  majority 
must  rule  within  the  party.  An  insurgent 
is  therefore  an  apostate.  The  decision  of 
the  caucus  is  the  infallible  declaration  of 
the  creed.  In  setting  myself  up  as  a  judge 
of  what  it  was  right  for  me  to  do,  as  the  sworn 
representative  of  the  people  who  had  elected 
me,  I  was  off  ending  against  party  orthodoxy, 
as  that  orthodoxy  was  then,  and  is  now, 
enforced  in  Washington. 

I  was  given  an  opportunity  to  return  to 
conformity.  J  was  sent  a  written  invitation 
to  attend  the  caucus  of  Republican  Senators 
after  the  assembling  of  Congress;  and,  with 
the  other  "insurgents,"  I  ignored  the  invita- 
tion. It  was  finally  decided  by  the  party 
leaders  to  let  the  tariff  bill  rest  until  after 
the  inauguration  of  the  President-elect, 
William  McKmley,  with  the  understanding 
that  he  would  call  a  special  session  to  consider 
it;  and,  in  the  interval,  the  Republican  ma- 
chine, under  Mark  Hanna,  was  set  to  work  to 
produce  a  Republican  majority  in  the  Senate. 

Hanna  was  elected  Senator,  at  this  time, 

194 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  succeed  John  Sherman,  who  had  been 
removed  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State, 
in  order  to  make  a  seat  for  Hanna.  The 
Republican  majority  was  produced.  (Senator 
Dubois  had  been  defeated).  And  when  the 
special  session  was  called,  in  the  spring  of 
1897,  my  vote  was  no  longer  so  urgently 
needed.  I  was  invited  to  a  Republican 
caucus,  but  I  was  unwilling  to  return  to 
political  affiliations  which  I  might  have  to 
renounce  again;  for  I  saw  the  power  of  the 
business  interests  in  dictating  the  policy  of 
the  party  and  I  did  not  propose  to  bow  to  that 
dictation. 

When  the  tariff  bill  came  before  the  Senate, 
I  could  not  in  conscience  support  it.  The 
beneficiaries  of  the  bill  seemed  to  be  dictating 
their  own  schedules,  and  this  was  notably 
the  case  with  the  sugar  trust,  which  had 
obtained  a  differential  between  raw  and  refined 
sugar  several  times  greater  than  the  entire 
cost  of  refining.  I  denounced  the  injustice 
of  the  sugar  schedule  particularly.  A  Mr. 
Oxnard  came  to  remonstrate  with  me  on 
behalf  of  the  beet  sugar  industry  of  the  West. 
"You  know,"  he  said,  "what  a  hard  time 
we're  having  with  our  sugar  companies. 
Unless  this  schedule's  adopted  I  greatly  fear 
for  our  future." 

I  replied  that  I  was  not  opposing  any  pro- 
tection of  the  struggling  industries  of  the 
country,  or  of  the  sugar  growers,  but  I  was 

195 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

set  against  the  extortionate  differential  that 
the  sugar  trust  was  demanding.  Everybody 
knew  that  the  trust  had  built  its  tremendous 
industrial  power  upon  such  criminally  high 
protection  as  this  differential  afforded,  and 
that  its  power  now  affected  public  councils, 
obtained  improper  favors,  and  terrorized 
the  small  competing  beet  sugar  companies 
of  the  West.  I  argued  that  it  was  time  to 
rally  for  the  protection  of  the  people  as  well 
as  of  the  beet  sugar  industry. 

He  predicted  that  if  the  differential  was 
reduced  the  protection  on  beet  sugar  would 
fail.  I  laughed  at  him.  "  You  don't  know  the 
temper  of  the  Senate,"  I  said.  "Why,  even 
some  of  the  Democrats  are  in  favor  of  pro- 
tecting the  beet  sugar  industry.  That  part  of 
the  bill  is  safe,  whatever  happens  to  the  rest." 

"Senator  Cannon,"  he  replied,  with  all  the 
scorn  of  superior  knowledge,  "you're  some- 
what new  to  this  matter.  Permit  me  to 
inform  you  that  if  we  don't  do  our  part  in 
supporting  the  sugar  schedule,  including  the 
differential,  the  friends  of  the  schedule  in  the 
Senate  will  prevent  us  from  obtaining  our 
protection." 

"That,"  I  retorted  angrily,  "is  equivalent 
to  saying  that  the  sugar  trust  is  writing  the 
sugar  schedule.  I  can't  listen  with  patience 
to  any  such  insult.  The  Senate  of  the  United 
States  cannot  be  dictated  to,  in  a  matter  of 
such  importance,  by  the  trust.  I  will  not 

196 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

vote  for  the  differential.  I  will  continue  to 
oppose  it  to  the  end.  If  you're  right — if 
the  trust  has  such  power — better  that  our 
struggling  sugar  industry  should  perish,  so 
that  we  may  arouse  the  people  to  the  iniqui- 
tous manipulation  that  destroyed  it." 

I  continued  to  oppose  the  schedule.  Soon 
after,  I  received  a  message  from  the  Church 
authorities  asking  me  to  go  to  New  York  to 
attend  to  some  of  their  financial  affairs.  I 
entered  the  lobby  of  the  Plaza  Hotel  on  Fifth 
Avenue  about  nine  o'clock  at  night;  I  was 
met,  unexpectedly,  by  Thomas  R.  Cutler, 
manager  of  the  Utah  Sugar  Company,  who 
was  a  Bishop  of  the  Mormon  Church;  and  he 
asked,  almost  at  once,  how  the  tariff  bill  was 
progressing  at  Washington. 

I  had  known  Bishop  Cutler  for  years.  I 
knew  that  he  had  labored  with  extraordinary 
zeal  and  intelligence  to  establish  the  sugar 
industry  in  Utah.  I  understood  that  he  had 
risked  his  own  property,  unselfishly,  to  save 
the  enterprise  when  it  was  in  peril.  And  I 
had  every  reason  to  expect  that  he  would 
be  as  indignant  as  I  was,  at  the  proposal  to 
use  the  support  of  the  beet  sugar  states  in 
behalf  of  their  old  tyrant. 

I  told  him  of  my  conversation  with  Oxnard. 
"I'm  glad,"  I  said,  "that  we're  independent 
enough  to  refuse  such  an  alliance  with  the 
men  who  are  robbing  the  country." 

A  peculiar,  pale  smile  curled  Bishop  Cutler's 

197 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

thin  lips.  "  Well,  Frank,"  he  replied,  "  that's 
just  what  I  want  to  see  you  about.  We" — 
with  the  intonation  that  is  used  among  promi- 
nent Mormons  when  the  "we"  are  voicing 
the  conclusions  of  the  hierarchy — "wouldn't 
like  to  do  anything  to  hurt  the  sugar  interests 
of  the  country.  I've  looked  into  this  differ- 
ential, and  I  don't  see  that  it  is  particularly 
exorbitant.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Ameri- 
can Sugar  Refining  Company  is  doing  all  it 
can  to  help  us  get  our  needed  protection,  and 
we  have  promised  to  do  what  we  can  for  it, 
in  return.  I  hope  you  can  see  your  way  clear 
to  vote  for  the  bill.  I  know  that  the  breth- 
ren "• —meaning  the  Church  authorities — "will 
not  approve  of  your  opposition  to  it." 

I  understand  what  his  quiet  warning  meant, 
and  when  we  had  parted  I  went  to  my  room 
to  face  the  situation.  Already  I  had  been 
told,  by  a  representative  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railway,  that  the  company  intended  to  make 
Utah  the  legal  home  of  the  corporation,  and 
to  enter  into  a  close  affiliation  with  the  promi- 
nent men  of  the  Church.  I  had  been  asked  to 
participate,  and  I  had  refused  because  I  did 
not  feel  free,  as  a  Senator,  to  become  interested 
in  a  company  whose  relations  with  the  gov- 
ernment were  of  such  a  character.  But  I  had 
not  foreseen  what  this  affiliation  meant. 
Bishop  Cutler's  warning  opened  my  eyes. 
The  Church  was  protecting  itself,  in  its  com- 
mercial undertakings,  by  an  alliance  with 

198 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  strongest  and  most  unscrupulous  of  the 
national  enemies. 

I  saw  that  this  was  natural.  The  Mormon 
leaders  had  been  for  years  struggling  to  save 
their  community  from  poverty.  Proscribed 
by  the  Federal  laws,  their  home  industries 
suffering  for  want  of  finances,  fighting  against 
the  allied  influences  of  business  in  politics, 
these  leaders  had  been  taught  to  feel  a  fearful 
respect  for  the  power  that  had  oppressed  them. 
They  were  now  being  offered  the  aid  and 
countenance  of  their  old  opponents.  Our 
community,  so  long  the  object  of  the  world's 
disdain,  was  to  advance  to  favor  and  pros- 
perity along  the  easy  road  of  association  with 
the  most  influential  interests  of  the  country. 

I  remembered  the  long  hard  struggle  of 
our  people.  I  remembered  the  days  and 
nights  of  anxiety  that  I  myself  had  known 
when  we  were  friendless  and  proscribed. 
Here  was  an  open  door  for  us,  now,  to  power 
and  wealth  and  all  the  comfort  and  considera- 
tion that  would  come  of  these.  Other  men 
better  than  I  in  personal  character,  more 
experienced  in  legislation  than  I,  and  wiser 
by  natural  gift,  were  willing  to  vote  for  the 
bill;  and  Bishop  Cutler,  a  man  whom  I  had 
always  esteemed,  the  representative  of  the 
men  whom  I  most  revered,  had  urged  me, 
for  them,  to  support  the  bill,  under  suggestion 
of  their  anger  if  I  refused  to  be  guided  by 
their  leadership. 

199 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  saw  why  the  ''interests"  were  eager  to 
have  our  friendship ;  we  could  give  them  more 
than  any  other  community  of  our  size  in  the 
whole  country.  In  the  final  analysis,  the 
laws  of  our  state  and  the  administration  of 
its  government  would  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
church  authorities.  Moses  Thatcher  might 
lead  a  rebellion  for  a  time,  but  it  would  be 
brief.  Brigham  H.  Roberts  might  avow  his 
independence  in  some  wonderful  burst  of 
campaign  oratory,  but  he  would  be  forced 
to  fast  and  pray  and  see  visions  until  he 
yielded.  I  might  rebel  and  be  successful 
for  a  moment,  but  the  inexorable  power  of 
church  control  would  crush  me  at  last.  Yet, 
if  I  surrendered  in  this  matter  of  the  tariff, 
I  should  be  doing  exactly  what  I  had  criticized 
so  many  of  my  colleagues  for  doing — for  more 
than  one  man  in  the  House  and  the  Senate 
had  given  me  the  specious  excuse  that  it  was 
necessary  to  go  against  his  conscience,  here, 
in  order  to  hold  his  influence  and  his  power 
to  do  good  in  other  instances. 

I  did  not  sleep  that  night.  On  the  day 
following,  I  transacted  the  financial  affairs 
that  I  had  been  asked  to  undertake,  and  then 
I  returned  to  Washington.  My  wife  met  me 
at  the  railway  station,  and — if  you  will  bear 
with  the  intimacy  of  such  psychology — the 
moment  I  saw  her  I  knew  how  I  would  vote. 
I  knew  that  neither  the  plea  of  community 
ambition,  nor  the  equally  invalid  argument 

200 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  an  industrial  need  at  home,  nor  the  financial 
jeopardy  of  my  friends  who  had  invested  in 
our  home  industries,  nor  the  fear  of  church 
antagonism,  could  justify  me  in  what  would 
be,  for  me,  an  act  of  perfidy.  When  I  had 
taken  my  oath  of  office  I  had  pledged  myself, 
in  the  memory  of  old  days  of  injustice,  never 
to  vote  as  a  Senator  for  an  act  of  injustice. 
The  test  had  come.  By  all  the  sanctities  of 
that  old  suffering  and  the  promise  that  I  had 
made  in  its  spirit,  I  would  keep  the  faith. 

When  the  tariff  bill  came  to  its  final  vote 
in  the  Senate,  I  had  the  unhappy  distinction 
of  being  the  only  Republican  Senator  who 
voted  against  it.  A  useless  sacrifice!  And 
yet  if  it  had  been  my  one  act  of  public  life, 
I  should  still  be  glad  of  it.  The  "interests" 
that  forced  the  passage  of  that  bill  are  those 
that  have  since  exploited  the  country  so 
shamefully.  It  is  their  control  of  Republican 
party  councils  that  has  since  caused  the  loss 
of  popular  faith  in  Republicanism  and  the 
split  in  the  party  which  threatens  to  disrupt 
it.  It  is  their  control  of  politics  in  Utah  that 
has  destroyed  the  whole  value  of  the  Mormon 
experiment  in  communism  and  made  the 
Mormon  Church  an  instrument  of  political 
oppression  for  commercial  gain.  They  are 
the  most  dangerous  domestic  enemy  that  the 
nation  has  known  since  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War.  My  opposition  was  as  doomed  as  such 
single  independence  must  always  be — but 

201 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

at  least  it  was  an  opposition.  There  is  a 
consolation  in  having  been  right,  though 
you  may  have  been  futile! 

My  father,  visiting  Washington  soon  after- 
wards, took  occasion  to  criticize  my  vote 
publicly,  in  a  newspaper  interview;  but  he 
was  content,  by  that  criticism,  to  clear  him- 
self and  his  colleagues  of  any  responsibility 
for  my  act.  "You  made  a  great  mistake," 
he  told  me  privately.  "You  are  alienating 
the  friends  who  have  done  so  much  for  us." 
He  added  as  if  casually — with  an  air  of  off- 
handedness  that  was  significant  to  me — "  You 
lay  yourself  open  to  attack  from  your  political 
enemies.  When  a  man's  head  is  high,  it  is 
easily  hit."  I  was  afterwards  to  understand 
how  serious  a  danger  he  then  foresaw  and  thus 
predicted. 

Many  reports  soon  reached  me  of  attacks 
that  were  being  made  upon  me  by  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities,  particularly  by  Joseph 
F.  Smith  and  Apostle  Heber  J.  Grant.  The 
formal  criticism  passed  upon  me  by  my  father 
was  magnified  to  make  my  tariff  vote  appear 
an  inexcusable  party  and  community  de- 
fection. A  vigorous  and  determined  opposi- 
tion was  raised  against  me.  And  in  this, 
Smith  and  his  followers  were  aided  by  the 
perfect  system  of  Church  control  in  Utah — 
a  system  of  complete  ecclesiastical  tyranny 
under  the  guise  of  democracy. 

Practically  every  Mormon  man  is  in  the 

202 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

priesthood.  Nearly  every  Mormon  man  has 
some  concrete  authority  to  exercise  in  addi- 
tion to  holding  his  ordination  as  an  elder. 
Obedience  to  his  superiors  is  essential  to  his 
ambition  to  rise  to  higher  dignity  in  the 
church;  and  obedience  to  his  superiors  is 
necessary  in  order  to  attract  obedience  to 
himself  from  his  subordinates.  There  can 
be  no  lay  jealousy  of  priestly  interference  in 
politics,  because  there  are  no  laymen  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  A  man's  worldly 
success  in  life  is  largely  involved  in  his  success 
as  a  churchman,  since  the  church  commands 
the  opportunities  of  enterprise,  and  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  are  the  state's  most  powerful 
men  of  affairs.  It  is  not  uncommon,  in  any 
of  our  American  communities,  for  men  to 
use  their  church  membership  to  support  their 
business;  but  in  Utah  the  Mormons  practi- 
cally must  do  so,  and  even  the  Gentiles  find 
it  wise  to  be  subservient. 

Add  to  this  temporal  power  of  the  Church 
the  fact  that  it  was  establishing  a  policy  of 
seeking  material  success  for  its  people,  and 
you  have  the  explanation  of  its  eagerness  to 
accept  an  alliance  with  the  "interests"  and 
of  its  hostility  to  anyone  who  opposed  that 
alliance.  The  Mormons,  dispossessed  of  their 
means  by  the  migration  from  Illinois,  had 
been  taught  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  wealth 
and  the  value  of  it  when  once  obtained.  They 
fancied  themselves  set  apart,  in  the  mountains, 

203 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

by  the  world's  exclusion.  They  were  am- 
bitious to  make  themselves  as  financially 
powerful  in  proportion  to  their  numbers  as 
the  Jews  were;  and  it  was  a  common  argu- 
ment among  them  that  the  world's  respect 
had  turned  to  the  Jews  because  of  the  de- 
pendence of  Christian  governments  upon  the 
Jewish  financiers. 

The  exploitation  of  this  solid  mass  of  in- 
dustry and  thrift  could  not  long  be  obscured 
from  the  eyes  of  the  East.  The  honest  desire 
of  the  Mormon  leaders  to  benefit  their  people 
by  an  alliance  with  financial  power  made 
them  the  easy  victims  of  such  an  alliance. 
With  the  death  of  the  older  men  of  the  hie- 
rarchy, the  Church  administration  lost  its 
tradition  of  religious  leadership  for  the  good 
of  the  community  solely,  and  the  new  leaders 
became  eager  for  financial  aggrandizement 
for  the  sake  of  power.  Like  every  other 
church  that  has  added  a  temporal  scepter  to 
its  spiritual  authority,  its  pontiffs  have  be- 
come kings  of  a  civil  government  instead  of 
primates  of  a  religious  faith. 


204 


CHAPTER  IX 

AT  THE  CROSSWAYS 

In  1897,  the  Church,  freed  of  proscription, 
with  its  people  enjoying  the  sovereignty  of 
their  state  rights,  had — as  I  have  already 
said — only  one  further  enfranchisement  to 
desire:  and  that  was  its  freedom  from  debt. 
The  informal  "finance  committee"  of  which 
I  was  a  member,  had  succeeded  in  concen- 
trating the  bulk  of  the  indebtedness  in  the 
East,  on  short  term  loans,  and  had  brought 
a  certain  order  out  of  the  confusion  of  the 
older  methods  of  administration.  But,  in 
1897,  my  father  proposed  a  comprehensive 
plan  of  Church  finance  that  included  the  issu- 
ance of  Church  bonds  and  the  formation  of 
responsible  committees  to  regulate  and  man- 
age the  business  affairs  of  the  Church,  so  that 
the  bonds  might  be  made  a  normal  investment 
for  Eastern  capital  by  having  a  normal  busi- 
ness method  of  administration  to  back  them. 
The  idea  was  tentatively  approved  by  the 
Presidency,  and  I  was  asked  to  draw  up  the 
plan  in  detail. 

To  this  end  there  were  placed  in  my  hands 
sheets  showing  the  assets,  liabilities,  revenues 
and  disbursements  of  the  Church.  They  gave 
a  total  cash  indebtedness  of  $1,200,000,  ap- 

205 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

proximately.  The  revenues  from  tithes  for 
the  year  1897  were  estimated  at  a  trifle  more 
than  a  million  dollars — the  total  being  low 
because  of  the  financial  depression  from  which 
the  country  was  just  recovering.  The  avail- 
able property  holdings — exclusive  of  premises 
used  for  religious  worship,  for  educational 
and  benevolent  work,  and  such  kindred  pur- 
poses— were  valued  at  several  millions  (from 
four  to  six),  although  there  was  no  definite 
appraisal  or  means  of  obtaining  appraisal, 
since  the  values  would  largely  attach  only 
when  the  properties  were  brought  into  busi- 
ness use.  I  was  advised  that  the  incomes 
of  the  Church  would  probably  increase  at 
the  rate  of  ten  per  cent  per  annum,  but  I  do 
not  know  by  what  calculations  this  ratio  was 
reached. 

The  disbursements  were  chiefly  for  interest 
on  debt,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temples 
and  tabernacles,  for  educational  and  charitable 
work,  for  missionary  headquarters  in  other 
countries,  and  for  the  return  of  released  mis- 
sionaries. The  missionaries  themselves  re- 
ceived no  compensation;  they  were  supposed 
to  travel  ''without  purse  or  scrip;"  their 
expenses  were  defrayed  by  their  relatives, 
and  they  had  to  pay  out  of  their  own  pockets 
for  the  printed  tracts  which  they  distributed. 
Neither  t  the  President  nor  any  of  the  general 
authorities  received  salaries.  There  was  an 
order  that  each  apostle  should  be  paid  $2,000 

206 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

a  year,  but  this  rule  had  been  suspended, 
except,  perhaps,  in  the  cases  of  men  who  had 
to  give  their  whole  time  to  religious  work  and 
who  had  no  independent  incomes.  Some 
occasional  appropriations  had  been  made 
for  meeting  houses  in  communities  that  had 
been  unable  to  erect  their  own  chapels  of 
worship,  but  for  the  most  part  there  were 
few  calls  made  upon  the  Church  revenues  to 
support  its  religious  activities,  its  priests  or 
its  propaganda. 

Our  proposed  committees,  therefore,  were 
a  committee  on  missionary  work,  one  on  pub- 
lication, one  on  colonization,  one  on  political 
protective  work  for  the  Mormons  in  foreign 
countries,  and — most  important — a  finance 
committee  selected  from  the  body  of  apostles, 
with  the  addition  of  some  able  men  connected 
with  financial  institutions.  As  a  basis  for 
the  work  of  the  finance  committee,  we  pro- 
posed the  establishment  of  an  interest  fund, 
a  sinking  fund,  and  a  scale  of  percentage 
disbursements  for  the  various  community 
purposes.  These  committees  were  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Conferences  of  the  people, 
and  the  committee  reports  were  to  be  public. 

President  Woodruff  eagerly  accepted  the 
plan  as  relieving  the  Presidency  of  adminis- 
trative cares  that  were  becoming  too  great 
for  the  quorum  to  carry.  Joseph  F.  Smith 
did  not  at  once  awake  to  the  real  meaning 
of  the  proposal;  but  when  the  scheme  was 

207 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

submitted  in  its  matured  details,  he  spoke 
of  the  danger  of  allowing  power  to  pass  from 
the  hands  of  the  "  trustee  in  trust "  in  business 
matters.  His  idea  was  sufficiently  clear  in  its 
resistance  to  any  diffusion  of  authority,  but 
it  was  correspondingly  void  of  any  suggestion 
of  substitute.  For  the  time  being  he  was 
pacified  by  the  assurance  that  the  "Kingdom 
of  God"  and  the  rule  of  its  prophets  would 
not  be  endangered  by  the  organization  of 
committees  and  the  submission  of  financial 
plans  to  the  general  knowledge,  and  even  to 
the  consent,  of  the  people. 

It  was,  of  course,  evident  to  the  First 
Councillor  that  this  scheme  of  Church  ad- 
ministration would  give  the  Mormon  people 
a  measure  of  responsible  government,  and 
the  proposal  was  a  part  of  his  wisdom  as  a 
community  leader  seeking  the  common  wel- 
fare. While  we  had  been  a  people  on  whom 
the  whole  world  seemed  to  be  making  war, 
a  dictatorship  had  been  necessary;  but  now 
that  we  had  arrived  at  peace  and  liberty,  a 
concentration  of  irresponsible  power  would 
surely  become  dangerous  to  progress.  With- 
out, therefore,  impairing  the  religious  author- 
ity of  the  Prophet,  the  First  Councillor  was 
willing  to  divide  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Church  among  its  members. 

He  was  as  silent,  about  these  aims,  with  me 
as  with  all  others ;  but  I  had  learned  to  under- 
stand him  in  his  silences;  and,  in  joining  with 

208 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

him  in  his  work  of  reform,  I  was  as  sure  of 
his  purpose  as  I  have  since  been  sure  of  the 
disaster  to  the  Mormon  people  that  has  come 
of  the  failure  to  effect  the  reform. 

When  the  Presidency  had  approved  of  the 
flotation  of  bonds,  I  went  with  my  father  to 
New  York  to  aid  him  in  interesting  Eastern 
capitalists  in  the  investment.  We  interviewed 
Judge  John  F.  Dillon  and  Mr.  Winslow  Pierce, 
of  the  law  firm  of  Dillon  and  Pierce,  attorneys 
for  some  of  the  Union  Pacific  interests;  and 
through  them  we  met  Mr.  Edward  H.  Harri- 
man,  Mr.  George  J.  Gould  and  members  of 
the  firm  of  Kuhn  Loeb  and  Company.  It 
was  interesting  to  watch  the  encounters  be- 
tween the  Mormon  prophet  and  some  of  these 
astutest  of  the  nation's  financiers;  for  it  was 
as  if  one  of  the  ancient  patriarchs  had  stepped 
down  from  the  days  of  early  Israel  to  discuss 
the  financial  problems  of  his  people  with  a 
modern  " captain  of  industry."  He  described 
a  condition  of  society  that  was,  to  Wall  Street, 
archaic.  He  spoke  with  a  serene  assurance 
that  the  order  of  affairs  in  Utah  was  consti- 
tuted in  the  wisdom  of  the  word  of  God.  He 
was  listened  to,  with  the  interest  of  curiosity, 
as  the  chief  living  exponent  of  the  Mormon 
movement,  its  processes  and  its  aims;  and 
I  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that  these  men 
of  the  world  had  a  large  and  splendid 
sympathy  for  any  wholesome  social  effort 
designed  to  abolish  poverty  and  establish 

209 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

a  quicker  justice  in  the  practical  affairs  of 
the  race. 

It  was  of  the  abolition  of  poverty  and  the 
justice  of  the  social  order  among  the  Mormons, 
that  the  First  Councillor  chiefly  spoke.  "Your 
clients,"  he  said  to  Judge  Dillon,  "make  their 
investments  frequently  in  railroad  stocks  and 
bonds.  What  are  the  underlying  bases  of 
the  values  of  railroad  securities?  Largely 
the  industry  and  stability  of  the  communities 
through  which  the  railroad  lines  shall  operate. 
Then,  in  reality,  the  security  is  valuable  in 
proportion  to  the  value  of  the  community 
in  its  steadfastness,  its  prosperity  and  the 
safety  of  its  productive  labor.  In  your  rail- 
road investments  you  are  obliged  to  take 
such  considerations  as  a  secondary  security. 
In  negotiating  this  Church  loan  with  your 
clients,  you  can  offer  the  same  great  values 
as  a  primary  security.  Probably  no  where  else 
in  the  world  is  there  a  people  at  once  so  indus- 
trious and  so  stable  as  ours." 

It  was  the  boast  of  the  Mormons  that  there 
had  not  been  an  almshouse  or  an  almstaker 
in  any  of  their  settlements,  up  to  the  time  of 
the  escheat  proceedings  by  the  Federal  offi- 
cials; and  this  was  literally  true.  Every 
man  had  been  helped  to  the  employment  for 
which  he  was  best  fitted.  If  an  immigrant, 
in  his  former  estate,  had  been  a  silk-weaver, 
efforts  were  made  to  establish  his  industry 
and  give  it  public  support.  If  he  had  been  a 

210 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

musician  of  talent,  a  little  conservatory  was 
founded,  and  patronage  obtained  for  him. 
When  the  growth  of  population  made  it  neces- 
sary to  open  new  valleys  for  agriculture,  the 
Church,  out  of  its  community  fund,  rendered 
the  initial  aid;  in  many  instances  the  original 
irrigation  enterprises  ^  of  i^small  settlements 
were  thus  financed;  and  the  investments  were 
repaid  not  only  directly,  by  the  return  of  the 
loan,  but  indirectly,  many  times  over,  by 
the  increased  productiveness  and  larger  con- 
tributions of  the  people.  Co-operation,  in 
mercantile,  industrial  and  stock-raising  under- 
takings, assured  the  support  and  patronage 
of  each  community  for  its  own  particular 
enterprise,  prevented  destructive  competition 
and  checked  the  greed  of  the  individual — for 
the  more  he  toiled  for  himself,  the  larger  the 
share  of  the  general  burden  he  had  to  carry. 
It  was  the  First  Councillor's  theory  that 
when  people  contributed  to  a  common  fund 
they  became  interested  in  one  another's 
material  welfare.  The  man  who  paid  less 
in  tithes  this  year  than  last  was  counselled 
with  as  to  why  his  business  had  been  unsuc- 
cessful, and  the  wise  men  of  his  little  circle 
aided  him  with  advice  and  material  help. 
The  man  who  contributed  largely  was  glad 
of  a  prosperity  from  which  he  yielded  a 
part — in  recognition  of  what  the  community 
had  done  for  him  and  in  a  reverent  gratitude 
to  God  for  making  him  "  a  steward  of  mighty 

211 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

possessions "  —but  he  was  anxious  that  his 
neighbor  also  should  be  a  larger  contributor 
each  year. 

The  whole  system  of  tithe-paying  was  built 
upon  a  series  of  purported  "revelations"  re- 
ceived by  Joseph  Smith,  the  original  Prophet. 
It  was  declared  to  be  the  will  of  God  that  all 
men,  as  stewards  of  their  possessions,  should 
give  of  their  increase  annually  into  "the 
storehouse  of  the  Lord,"  which  should  always 
be  open  for  the  relief  of  the  poor.  Inasmuch 
as  the  man  who  received  help — or  whose 
widow  and  children  did  so — had  been  a  tithe- 
payer  during  all  his  productive  years,  there 
was  none  of  the  feeling  of  personal  humiliation 
on  the  part  of  the  recipient,  nor  any  of  the 
feeling  of  condescending  charity  on  the  part 
of  the  giver,  in  the  distribution  of  funds  to 
the  needy.  And  it  was  astonishing  how  few  the 
needy  were — because  of  the  abstemious  lives, 
the  industry,  and  the  thrift  of  the  workers. 

The  Church  tribunals  heard  and  settled 
all  disputes  over  property  or  personal  rights 
not  involving  the  criminal  law.  Expensive 
litigation  was  thus  avoided.  Society  was 
saved  the  cost  of  innumerable  courts.  There 
were  many  counties  in  which  no  lawyer  could 
be  found;  and  everywhere,  among  the  Mor- 
mons, it  was  considered  an  act  of  evil  fellow- 
ship, amounting  almost  to  apostasy,  for  a  man 
to  bring  suit  against  his  brother  in  the  civil 
tribunals. 

212 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

In  short — as  my  father  pointed  out — Utah, 
at  that  time,  expressed  the  only  full-bodied 
social  proposition  in  the  United  States. 
There  never  had  been  in  America  another  com- 
munity whose  future,  in  the  economic  aspects, 
offered  so  clear  a  solution  of  problems  which 
still  remain  generally  unsettled.  It  was  as 
if  a  segment  of  the  great  circle  of  modern 
humanity  had  been  transported  to  another 
world,  otherwise  unpopulated,  and  there- 
with the  experience  gained  through  centuries 
of  human  travail — had  attempted  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  just,  beneficent  and  satisfying 
social  order. 

I  am  here  repeating  this  argument — this 
exposition — because  the  financial  absolutism 
of  the  Prophets  of  the  Church  has  since  ruined 
the  whole  Mormon  experiment  in  communism, 
put  the  Mormon  paupers  into  the  public 
poor  houses,  used  the  tithes  to  support  the 
large  financial  ventures  of  the  Prophet's 
favorites,  and  turned  the  Church's  ''com- 
munity enterprises"  into  monopolistic  ex- 
ploitations of  the  Mormon  people.  And  this 
change  began  even  while  our  negotiations 
were  pending  in  New  York — for  they  were 
prolonged,  for  various  reasons,  into  the  sum- 
mer of  1898,  and  they  were  interrupted  finally 
by  the  death  of  President  Woodruff. 

As  soon  as  I  received  word  of  his  illness 
I  took  train  for  Utah.  The  news  of  his 
death  met  me  on  the  journey  home.  Since 

213 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  derived  my  authority  solely  from  him,  upon 
my  arrival  in  Salt  Lake  I  went  to  the  Cashier 
of  the  Church,  gave  him  the  keys  and  the 
password  to  the  safety  deposit  box  in  New 
York,  and  withdrew  from  any  further  par 
ticipation  in  the  Church's  financial  affairs. 
When  I  came  to  the  office  of  the  Presidency 
I  found  that  my  father  had  removed  his  desk; 
and  this  was  an  indication  to  me  of  what  was 
happening  in  the  inner  circles  of  Church 
intrigue. 

The  president  of  the  quorum  of  apostles 
invariably  succeeds  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
Church,  although  it  is  left  to  the  apostles  to 
decide,  and  their  choice  is  supposed  to  be 
directed  by  inspiration.  His  election  is  sub- 
sequently ratified  by  the  General  Conference; 
but  this  ratification  is  a  mere  form,  because 
the  conference  must  either  accept  the  choice 
of  the  apostles  or  rebel  against  "  the  revelation 
of  God." 

Apostle  Lorenzo  Snow  was  president  of 
the  quorum  of  apostles,  and  therefore  in 
line  for  the  Presidency.  But  usually,  after 
the  death  of  a  President,  a  considerable  period 
was  allowed  to  elapse  before  the  selection  of 
his  successor,  with  the  government  resting 
in  the  quorum  of  apostles  meanwhile,  even 
for  a  term  of  years.  As  soon  as  I  arrived  in 
Salt  Lake,  Apostle  Snow  asked  me  to  a  private 
interview  (in  the  same  small  back  room  of  the 
President's  offices),  inquired  about  the  finan- 

214 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

cial  negotiations  that  I  had  been  conducting, 
and  asked  me  whether  it  was  not  essential 
to  the  success  of  our  business  affairs  that  as 
soon  as  possible  the  Church  should  elect  a 
President,  empowered  as  " trustee  in  trust." 
I  replied  that  it  was.  He  invited  me  to  attend 
a  conference  of  the  apostles  and  give  my  views 
upon  the  situation  to  them. 

This  seemed  to  me  an  act  of  rather  shallow 
cunning,  for  I  knew  I  was  too  unimportant 
a  person  to  be  so  consulted  unless  he  thought 
my  report  would  aid  his  intrigue.  Such 
intriguing  was  offensive  to  the  religious  tradi- 
tions of  the  Church;  and  it  outraged  my  feel- 
ing for  President  Woodruff,  who  was  hardly 
cold  in  death  before  this  personal  and  worldly 
ambition  caught  at  the  reins  of  his  office. 
Snow  had  been  a  man  of  small  weight  in  the 
government  of  the  Church.  He  had  known 
none  of  the  responsibilities  of  great  leadership. 
He  was  eighty-four  years  old. 

However,  it  was  impossible  for  us  toTmain- 
tain  the  Church's  credit  in  the  East  unless  our 
community  were  represented  by  some  choate 
authority,  since  our  credit  rested  on  the 
belief  that  the  Mormon  people  were  ready 
to  consecrate  all  their  possessions  at  any  time 
to  the  service  of  the  Church  at  the  command 
of  the  President.  I  advised  the  apostles  of 
this  fact.  Snow  was  elected  President  on 
September  13,  1898,  eleven  days  after  Wood- 
ruff's death.  He  followed  the  usual  precedent 

215 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

in  choosing  my  father  and  Joseph  F.  Smith 
as  his  Councillors. 

But  he  took  possession  of  his  new  authority 
with  the  manner  of  an  heir  entering  upon  the 
ownership  of  a  personal  estate  for  which  he 
had  long  waited — and  which  he  proposed  to 
enjoy  to  the  full  for  his  remaining  years.  In 
a  most  literal  sense  he  held  that  all  the  prop- 
erty of  the  people  of  the  Church  was  subject 
to  his  direction,  as  chief  earthly  steward  of 
"the  Divine  Monarch,"  and  he  proceeded  to 
exercise  his  assumed  prerogatives  with  an 
autocracy  that  made  even  Joseph  F.  Smith 
complain  because  the  Councillors  were  never 
asked  for  counsel.  As  resident  apostle  of 
Box  Elder  County  and  president  of  the  Box 
Elder  "stake  of  Zion,"  Snow  had  already 
shown  his  ambition  as  a  financier,  disastrously ; 
and  it  was  as  the  financial  head  of  the  Church 
that  he  was  chiefly  to  rule  during  his  term  of 
absolutism. 

Of  all  the  Church  leaders  whom  I  had  known 
he  was  the  only  man  who  showed  none  of  the 
robustness  of  the  Western  experience.  Tall, 
stately,  white-bearded,  elegant  and  courtly, 
he  prided  himself  most  obviously  on  his 
manners  and  his  culture.  He  rarely  spoke 
in  any  but  the  most  subdued  and  silken  tones 
of  suavity.  He  walked  with  a  step  that  was 
almost  affected  in  its  gentility.  If  he  had 
any  passions,  he  held  them  in  such  smooth 
concealment  that  the  public  credited  him 

216 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

with  neither  force  nor  unkindness.  He  had 
been  a  great  traveller  (as  a  missionary) ;  he 
had  written  his  autobiography,  somewhat 
egotistically;  he  was  devoted  to  the  forms  of 
his  religion,  like  a  medieval  Prince  of  the 
Church  and  an  elegante.  But  under  all  the 
artificialities  of  personal  vanity  and  exterior 
grace,  he  proved  to  have  a  cold  determination 
that  seemed  more  selfishly  ambitious  than 
religiously  zealous. 

At  once,  upon  his  accession  to  power,  he 
notified  us  that  he  did  not  intend  to  carry  out 
any  such  plan  as  we  had  suggested  for  the 
administration  of  the  Church's  finances.  It 
meant  a  diffusion  of  authority;  and  he  held 
that  the  best  results  had  been  obtained  by 
keeping  all  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Prophet, 
Seer  and  Revelator,  and  of  those  whom  he 
might  appoint  to  work  with  him.  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Presidency,  was 
even  more  positive.  No  good,  he  said,  could 
come  of  publishing  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
munity to  the  people  of  it ;  those  affairs  were 
purely  the  concern  of  the  Prophets ;  the  Lord 
revealed  His  will  to  the  Prophets  and  they 
were  responsible  only  to  Him. 

My  father  necessarily  bowed  to  the  Presi- 
dent's decision.  "  It  is  within  the  authority 
of  the  Prophet  of  the  Lord,"  he  counselled 
me,  "to  determine  how  he  will  conduct  the 
business  of  the  Church.  President  Snow  has 
his  own  ideas." 

217 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

By  that  decision,  as  I  see  it  now,  an  autoc- 
racy of  financial  power  was  confirmed  to  the 
President  of  the  Mormon  Church  at  a  time 
when  a  renewal  of  prosperity  among  its  people 
was  about  to  make  such  power  fatal  to  their 
liberties.  It  was  confirmed  to  a  man  who 
proved  himself  eager  for  it,  ambitious  to  in- 
crease it  and  secretly  unscrupulous  in  his  use 
of  it.  He  proceeded  at  once  to  preach  the 
doctrine  of  contribution  with  unexampled 
zeal,  but  he  administered  the  "common 
fund,."  so  collected,  with  none  of  the  old 
feeling  of  responsibility  to  the  people  who 
contributed  it.  He  became  the  first  of  the 
new  financial  pontiffs  of  the  Church  who  have 
used  the  " money  power"  as  an  aid  to  hie- 
rarchical domination. 

Moreover,  in  his  desire  to  511  the  coffers  of 
the  Church,  he  engaged  in  "  practical  politics  " 
and  made  a  profit  out  of  Church  influence, 
both  in  business  enterprises  and  in  political 
campaigns.  He  proved  himself  peculiarly 
qualified  by  nature  to  construct  and  direct 
a  secret  political  machine — a  machine  whose 
operations  were  never  to  be  observable  except 
to  the  close  student  of  Utah's  ecclesiasticism — 
a  machine  that  was  to  be  all  the  more  effective 
because  of  its  silent  certainty.  As  the  suc- 
ceeding chapters  of  this  narrative  will  show, 
although  he  affected  a  fine  superiority  to 
unclean  political  work  and  always  publicly 
professed  that  the  Church  of  Christ  was  hold- 

218 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ing  itself  aloof  from  the  strife  of  partisanship, 
there  was  no  political  event  on  which  he  did 
not  fix  the  calculating  eye  of  his  ambitious 
clericalism  and  no  candidacy  that  he  did  not 
reach  with  those  slender  but  powerful  fingers 
that  controlled  the  destiny  of  a  state  and 
trifled  with  the  honor  of  a  people. 

His  accession  marked  the  change  from  the 
old  to  the  new  regime  in  Utah.  Leadership 
was  no  longer  a  dangerous  honor.  Proscrip- 
tion no  longer  made  the  authorities  of  the 
Church  strong  by  persecution — hardy  chiefs 
of  a  poverty-stricken  people — leaders  as  sen- 
sible of  the  obligations  of  power  as  their  fol- 
lowers were  faithful  in  their  allegiance  of  duty. 
Political  freedom  and  worldly  prosperity  made 
the  office  of  President  a  luxurious  sovereignty, 
easily  tyrannical,  fortified  in  its  religious  ab- 
solutism by  its  irresponsible  power  of  finance, 
and  protected  in  its  social  abuses,  from  the 
interference  of  the  nation,  by  an  alliance  with 
the  commercial  rulers  of  the  nation  and  by  a 
duplicity  that  worldliness  has  learned  to 
dignify  with  the  respectability  of  material 
success. 


219 


CHAPTER  X 

ON  THE  DOWNWARD  PATH 

During  the  last  years  of  President  Wood- 
ruff's life  there  had  been  a  slow  decline  of  the 
feeling  that  it  was  necessary  for  self-protection 
that  the  hierarchy  should  preserve  a  political 
control  over  the  people.  I  cannot  say  that 
the  feeling  had  wholly  passed.  It  had  con- 
tinued to  show  itself,  here  and  there,  when- 
ever a  candidate  was  so  pertinacious  in  his 
independence  that  words  of  disfavor  were  sent 
out  from  Church  headquarters  in  one  of  those 
whispers  that  carry  to  the  confines  of  the 
kingdom  of  the  priests.  But  the  progress  was 
apparent.  The  tendency  was  clear.  And  in 
1898  there  was  neither  internal  revolt  nor 
external  threat  to  provoke  a  renewal  of  the 
exercise  of  that  force  wrhich  is  necessarily 
despotic  if  it  be  used  at  all. 

Yet,  in  September,  1898,  President  Snow, 
if  he  did  not  instigate,  at  least  authorized 
the  candidacy  of  Brigham  H.  Roberts  for 
Congress — a  polygamist  who  had  been  threat- 
ened with  excommunication  for  his  opposition 
to  the  "political  manifesto"  of  1896  and  who 
had  recanted  and  made  his  peace  with  the 
hierarchy.  His  election,  now,  would  be  a 
proof  that  the  Church  could  punish  a  brilliant 

220 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

orator  and  courageous  citizen  in  the  time  of 
his  independence  and  then  reward  him  in  the 
day  of  his  submission;  and  the  authorities 
would  thus  demonstrate  to  all  the  people 
that  the  one  way  to  political  preferment  lay 
through  the  annihilation  of  self-will  and  the 
submergence  of  national  loyalty  in  priestly 
devotion.  Such  a  candidacy  was  a  sufficient 
shame  to  the  state;  but  there  was  also  a 
United  States  Senatorship  to  be  bestowed; 
and  it  was  deliberately  bargained  for,  between 
the  Church  authorities  and  a  man  who  de- 
served better  than  the  alliance  into  which  he 
entered. 

Alfred  W.  McCune  was  a  citizen  of  Utah 
who  had  gone  out  from  the  territory  in  the 
days  of  its  poverty  (and  his  own),  had  made 
a  fortune  in  British  Columbia  and  Montana, 
and  had  returned  to  his  home  state  to  enrich 
it  v.ith  his  generosities.  He  was  not  a  Mor- 
mon, but  he  had  wide  Mormon  connections. 
He  spent  his  millions  in  public  enterprises 
and  benefactions;  and  the  Church  had  bene- 
fited in  the  sum  of  many  thousands  by  his 
subscriptions  to  its  funds  and  institutions. 

Apostle  Heber  J.  Grant,  a  Republican  by 
sentiment  but  a  Democrat  by  pretension, 
was  selected  by  President  Snow  to  baiter 
the  Senatorship  to  McCune.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  of  it.  Everyone  immediately  sus- 
pected it.  Letters  from  Grant,  published  in 
the  newspapers  of  January,  1899,  subsequently 

221 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

confirmed  it.  And  President  Snow's  actions, 
toward  the  end  of  the  campaign,  proved  it. 

The  other  candidates  were  Judge  O.  W. 
Powers,  a  prominent  Democrat;  William 
H.  King,  also  a  Democrat,  a  former  member 
of  Congress  and  at  one  time  a  Federal  Judge; 
and  myself  as  an  independent  Silver  Repub- 
lican. I  had  not  allied  myself  with  the  Demo- 
crats after  withdrawing  from  the  Republican 
convention  of  1896,  and  the  Republican 
machine  in  Utah  (thanks  to  the  power  of 
the  "interests")  had  repudiated  me,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1898,  by  adopting  a  platform  that 
refused  to  support  as  Senator  any  man  who 
had  opposed  the  Dingley  Tariff  Bill.  But 
I  had  the  votes  of  my  own  county  of  Weber, 
and  some  other  votes  that  had  been  pledged 
to  me  before  the  election  of  members  of  the 
legislature;  and  though  my  return  to  the 
Senate  seemed  plainly  impossible,  I  went 
into  the  fight  in  fulfilment  of  understandings 
which  I  had  with  progressive  elements  in 
Utah  and  with  the  "  insurgents,"  of  that  day, 
in  Washington. 

During  the  campaign  to  elect  members  of 
the  Legislature,  I  supported  the  Democratic 
State  and  Congressional  ticket.  Brigham 
H.  Roberts  had  been  nominated  for  Congress 
on  this  ticket — despite  the  protests  of  my 
father  and  many  others  who  foresaw  the  evil 
results  of  electing  a  polygamist.  I  accepted 
Roberts'  nomination  as  proof  that  this  ques- 

222 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tion  must  be  settled  anew  at  Washington; 
and  I  contented  myself  with  predicting, 
throughout  the  campaign,  that  the  House 
of  Representatives  would  determine  whether 
it  would  admit  a  polygamist  and  a  member 
of  the  hierarchy  as  a  lawmaker,  and  would 
so  forever  dispose  of  these  ecclesiastical  can- 
didacies of  which  Utah  refused  to  dispose 
for  itself.  (And  it  is  a  fact  that  since  the 
prompt  exclusion  of  Roberts  from  the  House 
of  Representatives  no  known  polygamist 
has  been  elected  to  either  House  of  Congress.) 

A  Democratic  legislature  was  elected,  and 
A.  W.  McCune  was  put  forward  prominently 
as  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  senator- 
ship.  He  was  assisted  by  his  own  newspaper, 
the  Salt  Lake  Herald,  by  numberless  business 
interests,  cleverly  by  the  Deseret  News  (the 
organ  of  the  hierarchy)  flagrantly  and  for 
financial  reasons  by  Apostle  Heber  J.  Grant, 
and  incidentally  by  the  Smiths  on  behalf 
of  the  Church.  Also  a  Republican  assistance 
was  given  him  bv  my  former  colleague  in  the 
Senate,  Arthur  Brown,  who  specialized  as  an 
opDonent  to  my  candidacy. 

My  old  campaign  manager,  Ben  Rich,  had 
been  withdrawn  from  me  by  a  Church  order 
appointing  him  in  control  of  the  Eastern 
missions.  I  was  without  the  support  of  either 
the  Democratic  or  Republican  organizations: 
my  following  was  a  personal  one:  and  con- 
sequently the  attack  upon  me  chiefly  took 

223 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  form  of  stories  of  personal  immorality, 
privately  circulated.  These  stories  culmi- 
nated in  a  motion  before  the  Woman's  Repub- 
lican Club,  demanding  my  withdrawal  from 
the  Senatorial  contest  on  the  ground  of  "  gross 
misconduct" — a  motion  introduced  by  a  Mrs. 
A" ma  M.  Bradley,  a  woman  politician  (who  was 
a  stranger  to  me),  with  the  assistance  of  Mrs. 
Arthur  Brown,  wife  of  the  former  Senator. 

If  I  ever  had  any  resentment  against  these 
unfortunate  women  for  allowing  themselves 
to  be  used  as  the  agents  of  slander,  it  passed 
in  the  miseries  that  overtook  them  later; 
for  Mrs.  Brown  died  of  the  scandal  of  her 
husband's  intimacy  with  Mrs.  Bradley,  and 
Mrs.  Bradley  shot  and  killed  ex-Senator 
Brown,  in  a  Washington  hotel,  because  he 
refused  to  marry  her  and  recognize  her  child 
after  her  divorce  from  her  husband. 

My  anger  then,  and  since,  was  not  against 
the  women,  but  against  the  men  who  hid 
behind  them — against  Apostle  Heber  J.  Grant 
and  Apostle  John  Henry  Smith  and  their  tool, 
ex-Senator  Brown.  In  my  anger  I  decided 
to  take  an  action  that  looked  as  desperate 
as  it  proved  successful.  I  hired  the  Salt 
Lake  Theatre  for  a  night  (February  9,  1899), 
and  announced  that  I  would  speak  on  "Sena- 
torial Candidates  and  Pharisees "  —intending 
to  use  the  opportunity  of  self-defence  in  order 
to  attack  the  "financial  apostles"  who  were 
selling  Church  influence. 


224 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

In  taking  that  step  I  understood,  of  course, 
that  it  meant  the  death  for  me  of  any  political 
ambition  in  Utah.  It  meant  offending  my 
father,  who  besought  me  not  to  raise  my  hand 
against  "the  Lord's  annointed,"  but  to  leave 
my  enemies  "to  God's  justice"-— as  he  had 
always  done  with  his.  It  meant  a  breach 
with  many  of  my  friends  in  the  Church  who 
would  blindly  resent  my  criticism  of  the  politi- 
cal apostles  as  an  encouragement  to  the  ene- 
mies of  the  faith.  But  the  part  that  I  had 
taken  in  helping  Utah  to  gain  its  statehood 
made  it  impossible  for  me  to  stand  aside,  now, 
and  see  all  our  pledges  broken,  all  our  prom- 
ises betrayed.  I  had  to  offer  myself  as  a 
sacrifice  to  hierarchical  resentment  in  the 
hope  that  my  destruction  might  give  at  least 
a  momentary  pause  to  the  reactionaries  in 
their  career. 

It  is  needless  that  I  should  relate  all  the 
incidents  of  that  wild  night.  The  theatre 
was  packed  with  people  who  joined  me  for 
the  moment  in  a  sympathetic  protest  against 
the  disgrace  of  Utah.  President  Lorenzo 
Snow,  his  two  councillors  and  several  apostles 
were  present,  and  I  spoke  without  any  reser- 
vations on  account  of  personal  relationship, 
my  own  candidacy  or  the  possible  effect  upon 
my  own  affairs.  I  appealed  to  the  people 
to  prevent  the  sale  of  Utah's  senatorship  to 
McCune  by  Apostle  Grant  and  the  Church 
reactionaries;  and  by  turning  the  light  of 

225 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

publicity  upon  the  methods  that  were  being 
employed  in  the  legislature,  I  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  hierarchy  to  sway  enough 
votes  to  elect  McCune.  The  men  who  had 
pledged  themselves  to  the  other  candidates 
could  not  be  shaken  from  their  support  without 
a  national  scandal.  The  election  settled  for 
the  time  into  a  deadlock,  in  which  no  candi- 
date could  obtain  enough  votes  to  elect 
him. 

Apostle  Heber  J.  Grant  started  to  write 
letters  that  should  counteract  the  effect  of 
my  speech,  but  President  Snow  forbade  him 
to  continue  the  controversy  and  sent  word  to 
me  that  he  had  forbidden  Grant  to  continue 
it.  I  did  not  know  why  President  Snow  wished 
me  to  feel  that  he  was  friendly  to  me,  but  I 
was  soon  to  learn. 

The  deadlock  in  the  legislature  continued, 
in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  Church  author- 
ities to  break  it.  Our  political  workers,  sum- 
moned one  by  one  by  messengers  from  Church 
headquarters,  had  gone  to  interviews  from 
which  they  did  not  return  to  us — until  I  had 
left  only  Judge  Ed.  F.  Colborn  (a  famous 
character  in  Kansas,  Colorado  and  Utah), 
and  an  old  friend,  Jesse  W.  Fox.  One  night, 
about  a  week  after  the  meeting  in  the  theatre, 
we  three  were  sitting  alone  in  my  rooms,  when 
the  door  opened  and  someone  beckoned  to 
Fox.  He  went  out.  Judge  Colborn  opened 
a  window  to  see  Fox  getting  into  a  carriage 

226 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

with  a  man  from  Church  headquarters — and 
we  knew  that  our  last  worker  was  gone. 

He  returned  only  to  tell  me  that  President 
Snow  wished  to  see  me — that  if  I  were  willing, 
the  President  would  like  to  have  me  call  upon 
him,  at  half  past  nine  the  following  evening, 
in  his  residence.  And  I  understood  the  sig- 
nificance of  such  an  invitation  for  such  an 
hour.  I  had  been  too  often  in  contact  with 
the  power  of  the  Prophets  to  doubt  what  was 
required  of  me.  I  was  curious  merely  to 
know  what  form  the  ultimatum  would  take. 

President  Snow  was  then  living  with  his 
youngest  wife  in  a  house  a  few  blocks  from 
the  offices  of  the  Presidency.  I  drove  there 
in  a  carriage  and  ordered  the  driver  to  wait 
for  me.  President  Snow  opened  the  door  to 
me  himself,  received  me  with  his  usual  en- 
gaging smile,  and  ushered  me  into  a  reception 
room  that  was  shut  off,  by  portieres,  from  a 
larger  parlor.  There,  when  he  had  invited  me  to 
be  seated,  he  said,  winningly:  "  I  was  not  sure 
you  would  come  in  answer  to  my  message." 

I  assured  him  that  I  had  not  so  far  lost  my 
regard  for  the  men  with  whom  my  father  was 
associated.  "And  besides,"  I  said,  "if  there 
were  no  other  reason,  it  is  my  place,  as  the 
younger  of  the  two,  to  attend  on  your  con- 


venience." 


"I  did  not  know,"  he  replied,  "but  that 
you  thought  me  one  of  the  'Pharisees'  of 
whom  you  spoke." 


227 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  did  not  accept  this  invitation  to  reply 
that  I  did  not  consider  him  one  of  the  Phari- 
sees. I  explained  merely  that  I  had  identified 
the  Pharisees  in  my  speech  by  name  and  deed 
and  accusation.  "  Unless  something  there 
said  is  applicable  to  you,  I  have  no  charge 
to  make  against  you." 

He  excused  himself  a  moment  to  go  to  an 
infant  whom  we  could  hear  crying  in  an  inner 
room;  and,  when  he  returned,  he  had  the 
child  in  his  arms — a  little  girl,  in  a  night 
gown.  He  sat  down,  petting  her,  stroking 
her  hair  with  his  supple  lean  hand,  affection- 
ately, and  smiling  with  a  sort  of  absent- 
minded  tenderness  as  he  took  up  the  conver- 
sation again. 

This  memory  of  him  sticks  in  my  mind  as 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  pictures  of 
my  experience.  I  knew  that  I  had  come 
there  to  hear  my  own  or  some  other  person's 
political  death  sentence.  I  knew  that  he 
would  not  have  invited  me  at  such  an  hour, 
with  such  secrecy,  unless  the  issue  of  our  con- 
ference was  to  be  something  dark  and  fatal. 
And  in  the  soft  radiance  of  the  lamp  he  sat 
smiling — fragile  of  build,  almost  spirituelle, 
white-haired,  delicately  cultured — soothing 
the  child  who  played  with  his  long  silvery 
beard  and  blinked  sleepily.  He  inquired 
whether  my  carriage  was  waiting  for  me,  and 
I  replied  that  it  was.  He  asked  me  to  dismiss 
it.  When  I  returned  to  the  room,  the  little 

228 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

girl  was  resting  quiet,  and  he  excused  himself 
to  take  her  to  her  cot.  I  heard  him  closing 
the  doors  behind  him  as  he  came  back.  "  We 
may  now  talk  with  perfect  freedom,"  he 
announced.  "  There's  no  one  else  in  this  part 
of  the  house." 

He  sat  down  in  his  chair,  composing  him- 
self with  an  air  that  might  have  distinguished 
one  of  the  ancient  kings.  "I  have  sent  for 
you  to  talk  about  the  Senatorial  situation. 
May  I  speak  plainly  to  you  ? " 

I  replied  that  he  might.     He  was  watching 
me,  under  his  gray  eyebrows,  with  his  soft 
eyes,  in  which  there  was  a  glitter  of  blackness 
but  none  of  the  rheum  of  old  age. 

II  It  would  be  most  unfortunate,"  he  said, 
"for  us,  as  a  people,  if  we  failed  to  elect  a 
Senator.     I've  had  many  business  and  other 
anxieties  for  the  Church,  and  I  want  this  ques- 
tion settled.     If  we  act  wisely — with  the  power 
and  influence  at  our  command — aid  will  come 
to  me.     I  think  you  would  not  willingly  per- 
mit our  situation  to  become  more  difficult." 

He  must  have  seen  a  change  in  my  expres- 
sion— a  change  that  indicated  how  well  I 
understood  the  significance  of  this  guarded 
introduction.  Suddenly,  his  manner  broke 
into  animation,  and  holding  out  both  hands 
to  me,  palms  up,  he  said,  smiling:  "You 
must  know,  Brother  Frank,  that  I  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Mr.  McCune's  candidacy  for  the 
Senate,  do  you  not?  I  was  not  responsible 

229 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  what  Brother  Grant  did.  Before  we  go 
on,  I  want  you  to  acquit  me  of  responsibility 
for  that  project." 

11  President  Snow,"  I  replied,  "  I  can't  admit 
so  much.  I,  too,  wish  to  talk  plainly — with 
your  permission.  Your  responsibility  is  evi- 
dent even  to  the  casual  observer — to  say 
nothing  of  one  reared  as  I've  been.  Every 
man  in  this  community  knows  that  when  you 
point  your  finger  your  apostles  go,  and  when 
you  crook  your  finger  your  apostles  return — 
and  Heber  J.  Grant  has  only  done  what  you 
permitted  him  to  do  with  your  full  knowledge. ' ' 

He  drew  himself  up,  coldly.  "  What  I  have 
done,"  he  retorted,  "has  been  done  with  the 
knowledge  of  my  Councillors." 

The  thrust  was  obvious.  I  replied:  "  If  my 
father  desires  to  discuss  with  me  his  respon- 
sibility for  this  indignity  to  the  state,  he  knows 
I'm  at  his  command.  And  if  I  have  any 
charge  to  make,  involving  his  good  faith 
toward  the  country,  I'll  seek  him  alone." 

"Very  well,"  he  said,  with  a  frigid  suavity. 
"We  will  leave  that  part  of  the  question." 
He  paused.  "Last  night,"  he  continued, 
"lying  on  my  bed,  I  had  a  vision.  I  saw  this 
work  of  God  injured  by  the  political  strife  of 
the  brethren.  And  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
came  to  me,  directing  me  to  see  that  your 
father  was  elected  to  the  Senate. ' '  He  studied 
me  a  moment  before  he  added:  "What  have 
you  to  say?" 

230 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  answered:  "It  seems  to  me  impossible. 
This  legislature  is  strongly  Democratic.  My 
father's  a  Republican.  It  seems  to  me  not 
only  impracticable  but  very  unwise — if  it 
could  be  done." 

"Never  mind  that,"  he  said.  "The  Lord 
will  take  care  of  the  event.  I  want  you  to 
withdraw  from  the  race  and  throw  your 
strength  to  your  father.  It  is  the  will  of  the 
Lord  that  you  do  so." 

"  Have  you  a  revelation  to  that  effect  also  ? " 
I  asked. 

He  answered,  pontifically,  "Yes." 

;<  You'll  publish  it  to  the  world,  then,  the 
same  as  other  revelations?" 

"No,"  he  replied.     "No." 

"Then  I'll  not  obey  it,"  I  said,  "because 
if  God  is  ashamed  of  it,  I  am." 

His  air  of  prophetic  authority  changed  to 
one  of  combative  resolution.  He  explained 
that  one  of  the  other  candidates,  a  strong 
Democrat,  had  agreed  to  accept  the  revelation 
if  I  would;  that  the  two  of  us  could  give  our 
strength  to  the  church  candidate;  that  the 
Church  would  turn  to  my  father  the  votes 
that  it  had  already  in  command  for  McCune, 
and  my  father's  election  would  be  carried. 

I  felt  that  the  thumb-screws  were  being 
put  on  me  again.  For  the  second  time  I  was 
being  forced  to  the  point  of  denying  the  Sena- 
torship  to  my  father  by  refusing  him  my  sup- 
port. And  there  could  not  have  been,  for 

231 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

me,  a  more  vivid  and  instantaneous  illumina- 
tion of  the  hidden  depths  in  this  Church 
system — or  in  the  individual  Prophet  of  vthe 
cult — than  was  made  by  Snow's  determined 
insistence  that  I  should  break  my  word  of 
honor  to  the  people  of  the  state  and  of  the 
nation,  pledge  that  broken  faith  to  him,  in- 
duce all  my  supporters  in  the  legislature  to 
violate  their  covenants — Mormon  and  Gentile 
alike! — and  upon  his  mere  assumption  of 
divine  authority,  direct  Mormon  and  Gentile 
to  stultify  and  disgrace  themselves  forever 
as  men  and  public  officials.  There  was  some- 
thing appalling  in  the  calculating  cruelty  with 
which  he  proposed  to  devote  us  all  to  destruc- 
tion and  dishonor.  There  was  something 
inhumanly  malignant  in  the  plan  to  use  my 
known  affection  for  my  father  in  order  to 
make  me  guilty  of  the  very  betrayal  of  the 
people  which  I  had  publicly  denounced.  I 
looked  at  him — and  heard  him,  now,  placidly, 
confidently,  with  a  renewed  suavity,  urging 
me  to  do  the  thing. 

"President  Snow,"  I  interrupted,  "does 
my  father  know  of  this  ? " 

He  answered:    "No." 

"I'm  glad  of  it,"  I  said.  (And  I  was!) 
"This  is  not  the  way  to  work  out  either  the 
destiny  of  'God's  people'  or  the  destiny  of 
this  state.  It  would  place  my  father  in  a 
most  humiliating  position  to  be  elected — at 
the  orders  of  the  Church — under  the  assump- 

232 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tion  that  God  Almighty  had  directedjmen  to 
break  their  solemn  promises  to  their  constit- 
uents. I  have  as  high  an  admiration  for 
my  father's  wisdom  and  ability  as  you  or 
the  Democratic  candidate  who  has  offered 
to  withdraw  at  the  will  of  the  Church,  but 
I  should  be  paying  no  honor  to  my  father  by 
dishonoring  my  pledge  to  my  constituents 
and  asking  other  men  to  dishonor  theirs." 

He  dismissed  me  with  an  air  of  benignant 
sorrow! 

The  deadlock  in  the  legislature  continued 
unbroken.  Among  my  supporters  was  Lewis 
W.  Shurtliff,  the  President  of  the  "Stake  of 
Zion"  in  which  I  lived;  he  was  one  of  the 
highest  Church  dignitaries  in  the  legislature 
and  was  regarded  as  my  foremost  champion 
in  the  Senatorial  contest.  On  the  last  day 
of  the  legislative  session,  at  President  Snow's 
instruction,  my  father,  known  as  a  Republi- 
can, was  offered  as  a  senatorial  candidate  to 
this  Democratic  legislature,  and  all  the  power 
of  the  Church  influence  was  thrown  to  him. 
President  ShurtlifFs  wife  came  to  our  head- 
quarters, that*night,  and  knelt,  with  a  number 
of  other  ladies,  to  pray  that  her  husband  might 
be  spared  the  humiliation  of  breaking  his 
repeated  promise  not  to  desert  me!  We  all 
knew  that  if  he  broke  his  promise,  it  would 
cause  him  more  mental  anguish  than  anyone 
else;  but  we  knew,  too,  that  if  the  command 
came  from  Church  headquarters,  he  would 

233 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

have  to  obey  it.  Men  broke  their  political 
pledges  to  their  people  and  outraged  their 
own  ,  feelings  of  personal  independence  or 
partisan  loyalty,  rather  than  offend  against 
"the  will  of  the  Lord."  The  forces  of  the 
other  candidates  went  to  pieces,  and  on  the 
last  night  of  the  session  my  father's  vote 
reached  twenty-three.  (It  required  thirty- 
two  votes  to  elect.) 

The  situation  was  saved  by  the  action  of  a 
number  of  Democrats  who  got  together  and 
obtained  a  recess;  when  the  recess  was  ended, 
a  final  ballot  was  taken,  and,  since  no  candi- 
date had  enough  votes  to  elect  him,  the  pre- 
siding officer,  by  preconcertment,  declared 
the  joint  assembly  adjourned  sine  die,  by 
operation  of  law.  No  Senator  was  elected. 

But  it  was  the  last  time  that  the  Church 
authorities  were  to  be  balked.  Since  that 
day,  they  have  dictated  the  nominations  and 
carried  the  elections  of  the  United  States 
Senators  from  Utah  as  if  these  were  candidates 
for  a  church  office.  The  present  Senator, 
Reed  Smoot,  is  an  apostle  of  the  Church;  he 
obtained  the  Mormon  President's  ''permis- 
sion" to  become  a  candidate,  as  he  admitted 
to  an  investigating  committee  of  the  Senate; 
and  when  the  recent  tariff  bill  was  being  at- 
tacked by  insurgent  Republicans  and  carried 
by  Senator  Aldrich,  Senator  Smoot  acted  as 
Aldrich's  lieutenant  in  debate,  and  remained 
to  watch  the  defence  of  the  "interests"  when 

234 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

his  chief  was  absent  from  the  Senate  chamber. 
(Not  because  Smoot  was  such  an  able  de- 
fender of  those  " interests"!  Not  because 
his  constituents  would  uphold  his  course! 
But  because  he  has  no  constituents,  and  is 
responsible  to  no  one  but  the  hierarchical 
partners  of  those  " interests.") 

Every  pledge  of  the  Mormon  leaders  that 
the  Church  would  not  interfere  in  politics 
has  been  broken  at  every  election  in  Utah 
since  President  Snow  that  night  pleaded  to 
me  that  he  had  had  many  business  anxieties 
for  the  Church  and  that  if  we  elected  the 
Church  candidate  "aid"  would  come  to  him. 
The  covenants  by  which  Utah  obtained  its 
statehood  have  been  violated  again  and  again. 
The  provisions  of  the  state  constitution  have 
been  nullified.  The  trust  of  the  Mormon 
people  has  been  abused;  their  political  lib- 
erties have  been  denied  them;  their  Gentile 
brethren  have  been  betrayed.  And  all  this 
has  been  done  not  for  the  protection  of  the 
people,  who  were  threatened  with  no  pro- 
scription— and  not  for  the  advancement  of 
the  faith,  which  has  been  free  to  work  out 
its  own  future.  It  has  been  done^as  a  part 
of  the  alliance  between  the  "financial" 
prophets  of  the  Church  and  the  financial 
"interests"  of  the  country — which  have  been 
exploiting  the  people  of  Utah  as  they  have 
exploited  the  whole  nation  with  the  aid  of 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  Utah. 

235 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  WILL  OF  THE  LORD 

The  Mormon  leaders  were  now  hurried 
down  their  chosen  path  of  dishonor  with  a 
fateful  rapidity.  A  reform  movement  was 
demanding  of  Washington  the  adoption  of  a 
constitutional  amendment  that  should  give 
Congress  power  to  regulate  the  marriage  and 
divorce  laws  of  all  the  states  in  the  Union. 
And  this  proposed  amendment — partly  in- 
spired by  a  growing  doubt  of  the  good  faith 
of  the  Mormon  leaders — gave  the  politicians 
in  Washington  something  to  trade  for  Mormon 
votes,  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1900. 

The  Republicans  had  lost  the  electoral  votes 
of  Utah  and  the  surrounding  states,  in  1896. 
Utah  was  now  Democratic,  and  its  one  United 
States  Senator  (who  was  still  in  office)  was  a 
Democrat.  Senator  Hanna's  lieutenant, 
Perry  S.  Heath,  came  to  Salt  Lake  City  in 
the  summer  of  1900,  to  confer  with  the  heads 
of  the  Mormon  Church.  His  authority  (as 
representative  of  the  ruler  of  the  Republican 
party)  had  been  authenticated  by  correspond- 
ence ;  and  he  was  received  by  President  Snow 
as  royalty  receives  the  envoy  of  royalty. 

Heath  negotiated  with  his  usual  directness. 
In  the  phrase  of  the  time,  "he  laid  down  his 

236 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

cards  on  the  table,  face  up,  and  asked  Snow 
to  play  to  that  hand. ' '  If  the  Mormon  Church 
would  pledge  its  support  to  the  Republican 
party,  the  Republican  leaders  would  avert 
the  threatened  constitutional  amendment 
that  was  to  give  Congress  the  power  to  inter- 
fere in  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  Mormon 
people.  But  if  the  Church  denied  its  support 
to  the  Republican  party,  the  constitutional 
amendment  would  be  carried,  and  the  Mor- 
mons, in  their  marriage  relations,  would  be 
returned  to  the  Federal  jurisdiction  from 
which  they  had  escaped  when  the  territory 
was  admitted  to  statehood. 

The  sentiment  of  the  country  was  known 
to  be  in  favor  of  giving  Congress  such  power. 
A  strong  body  of  reformers  was  urging  the 
amendment,  and  the  Church  leaders  had  sent 
Apostle  John  Henry  Smith  and  Bishop  H.  B. 
Clawson  to  lobby  against  it.  After  consulting 
with  my  father,  I  had  written  to  President 
Snow  pointing  out  the  danger  to  the  Mormons 
of  having  a  lobby  opposing  such  an  amend- 
ment— for  I  was  not  then  aware  of  the  secret 
return  to  the  practice  of  polygamy,  after  1896. 
President  Snow  replied  to  me  (in  a  message 
of  guarded  prudence)  that  although  the  Church 
inhibited  plural  marriage  and  did  not  intend 
to  allow  the  practice,  he  was  opposed  to  the 
interference  of  Congress  in  the  domestic  con- 
cerns of  the  other  states  of  the  Union! 

He  made  his   "deal"   with  Perry  Heath. 

237 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Church  messengers  were  sent  out  secretly 
to  the  Mormons  in  Idaho,  Wyoming,  Colorado, 
Nevada,  Montana,  Washington,  Oregon,  Cali- 
fornia and  the  territories,  with  the  whispered 
announcement  that  it  was  "the  will  of  the 
Lord"  that  the  Republicans  should  be  aided. 
Utah  went  Republican;  the  Mormons  in  the 
surrounding  states  either  openly  supported, 
or  secretly  voted  for  McKinley;  and  the  con- 
stitutional amendment  was  "side  tracked" 
and  forgotten. 

Utah  elected  a  Republican  legislature. 
Apostle  Reed  Smoot  applied  to  President  Snow 
for  permission  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
United  States  Senatorship,  and  obtained  a 
promise  that  if  he  stood  aside,  for  the  time, 
he  should  receive  his  reward  later.  President 
Snow  had  decided  that  Thomas  Kearns,  al- 
ready an  active  candidate,  was  the  man  whom 
the  Church  would  support — since  Mr.  Kearns' 
ability,  his  wealth  and  his  business  connection 
promised  greater  advantages  for  the  state  and 
(under  cunning  manipulation  by  the  priests) 
greater  advantages  for  the  Church  than  the 
election  of  any  other  candidate.  And  all  this 
may  be  fairly  said  without  assuming  that 
there  was  any  definite  arrangement  between 
the  Church  and  any  friends  of  Mr.  Kearns. 

Kearns  was  associated  with  Senator  Clark 
of  Montana  and  R.  C.  Kerens  of  St.  Louis  in 
building  a  railroad  from  Salt  Lake  to  Los 
Angeles,  and  the  Church  owned  some  fifteen 

238 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

miles  of  track  that  had  been  laid  from  Salt 
Lake  City,  as  the  beginning  of  a  Los  Angeles 
line.  It  was  apparently  assumed  by  President 
Snow  that  Kearns'  election  to  the  Senate 
would  facilitate  the  sale  of  this  Church  rail- 
road to  the  Clark- Kearns  syndicate.  The 
Church  had  a  direct  interest  in  numerous 
iron  and  coal  properties  in  Southern  Utah, 
and  many  members  of  the  Church  also  had 
private  properties  there,  which  the  Los 
Angeles  line  would  develop.  Some  of  Kearns' 
friends  were  negotiating  for  the  purchase  of 
Church  properties,  and  one  of  his  partners 
was  proposing  to  buy  (and  subsequently 
bought)  the  Church's  "Amelia  Palace,"  a 
useless  and  expensive  property  which  Brigham 
Young  had  built  for  his  favorite  wife,  and 
which  the  Church  had  long  been  eager  to  sell. 
My  father  had  been  in  ill-health  for  some 
months  and  he  was  away  from  Utah  a  large 
part  of  the  time.  President  Snow  took 
counsel  of  his  Second  Councillor,  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  and  of  Apostle  John  Henry  Smith; 
and  to  the  Smiths,  he  indicated  Thos.  Kearns 
as  the  one  whose  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate  might  do  most  to  advance  Snow's 
concealed  purpose.  But  the  Smiths  had  other 
plans,  that  were  equally  advantageous  to  the 
Church  and  more  advantageous  to  the  Smiths ; 
they  rebelled  against  President  Snow's  dic- 
tation, and  he  ordered  them  both  away  on 
temporary  "missions." 

239 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

As  Joseph  F.  Smith  was  leaving  the  Presi- 
dent's offices,  in  a  rage,  he  met  an  old  friend, 
Joseph  Howell,  who  (at  this  writing)  is  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Utah,  and  was  then  a 
member  of  the  Utah  legislature.  He  told 
Smith  that  President  Snow  had  sent  for  him, 
and  Smith,  controlling  himself — without  be- 
traying any  knowledge  of  the  probable  pur- 
pose of  Snow's  summons  to  Howell — said 
affectionately:  "Brother  Howell,  I  want 
you  to  make  a  promise  to  me  on  your  honor 
as  an  elder  in  Israel.  I  want  you  to  pledge 
yourself  never  to  vote  in  this  legislature  for 
Thomas  Kearns  as  Senator.  I  ask  it  as  your 
friend,  and  as  a  Prophet  to  the  people.1' 

Howell  gave  his  promise,  and  proceeded 
to  his  interview  with  President  Snow.  There 
he  received  the  announcement  that  it  was 
"the  will  of  the  Lord"  that  he  should  vote 
for  Kearns,  and  he  had  to  reply  that  he  had 
already  received  an  inspired  instruction,  on 
this  point,  from  a  Prophet  of  the  Lord,  and 
had  given  his  pledge  against  Kearns. 

The  incident  became  one  of  the  jokes  of  the 
campaign,  for  Howell  held  to7his  promise  to 
Smith  (and  was  subsequently  rewarded  by 
Smith  with  a  seat  in  Congress) ,  and  President 
Snow  was  compelled  to  waive  the  question 
of  conflicting  "revelations." 

Kearns  was  elected.  But  he  had  had  a 
•powerful  political  machine  of  his  own,  and 
he  had  been  supported  by  a  strong  Gentile 

240 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

vote.  He  immediately  showed  his  inde- 
pendence by  refusing  to  take  orders  from  the 
political  Church  leaders.  He  declined,  fur- 
ther, for  himself  and  his  financial  confreres, 
to  engage  with  the  Church  in  business  affairs. 
Many  charges  were  made  that  he  was  breaking 
his  agreement  of  co-operation  with  the  author- 
ities, but  there  never  has  been  produced  any 
evidence  of  such  an  agreement,  and  I  do  not 
believe  (from  my  knowledge  of  Senator 
Kearns)  that  the  agreement  was  ever  made. 

The  railroad  into  Southern  Utah  was  later 
built  by  the  Harriman  interests  in  combina- 
tion with  Clark  and  Kearns;  but  there,  too, 
Snow  was  disappointed.  The  expected  de- 
velopment of  the  Church  properties  proved 
far  less  profitable  than  had  been  supposed, 
and  the  financial  prophecies  of  the  Seer  and 
Revelator  were  not  fulfilled. 

By  this  time  it  was  abundantly  evident 
that  some  of  the  Church  leaders  intended 
to  rule  their  people  in  politics  with  an  abso- 
lutism as  supreme  as  any  that  Utah  had  ever 
known  in  the  old  days.  And  for  these  leaders 
to  maintain  their  authority — despite  the 
covenant  of  their  amnesty,  the  terms  of  Utah's 
statehood  and  the  provisions  of  the  constitu- 
tion— and  to  maintain  that  authority  against 
the  robust  American  sentiment  that  would 
be  sure  to  assert  itself — it  was  necessary  that 
they  should  have  the  most  effective  political 
protection  afforded  by  any  organization  in 

241 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  whole  country.  The  ideal  arrangement 
of  evil  was  offered  to  them  by  the  men  then 
in  temporary  leadership  of  the  Republican 
party.  The  Prophets  were  able  to  make  the 
Republican  party  a  guilty  partner  of  their 
perfidy  by  making  it  a  recipient  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  that  perfidy,  and  to  assure  them- 
selves protection  in  every  religious  tyranny 
so  long  as  they  did  not  run  counter  to  Repub- 
lican purpose. 

For  the  moment,  the  Church  took  more 
benefit  from  the  partnership  than  it  conferred. 
The  result  of  the  presidential  elections  of  1900 
showed  that  the  Republicans  could  have 
elected  their  ticket  without  any  help  from 
the  Prophets.  But  without  the  help  of  the 
dominant  party  the  Prophets  could  not  have 
renewed  the  rule  of  the  state  by  the  Church — 
could  not  have  prevented  the  passage  of  a 
constitutional  amendment  punishing  polyg- 
amy by  Federal  statute — and  could  not  have 
obtained  such  intimate  relation  and  com- 
manding influence  with  the  great  " interests" 
of  the  country. 

Throughout  all  these  miserable  incidents, 
I  had  a  vague  hope  that  they  would  prove 
merely  temporary  and  peculiar  to  the  term 
of  Snow's  presidency.  He  was  now  in  his 
eighty-sixth  year.  My  father  was  next  in 
succession  for  the  Presidency,  and  he  was 
seventy- three.  He  had  remained  personally 
faithful  to  every  pledge  that  he  had  made  to 

242 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  nation,  and  though  he  had  been  powerless 
to  prevent  the  breaches  of  covenant  that  had 
followed  the  sovereignty  of  statehood,  I  knew 
that  he  had  opposed  some  of  them  and  been  a 
willing  party  to  none.  It  is  true  that  he  had 
become  a  director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
way and  was  close  to  the  leading  financiers 
of  the  East ;  but  his  Union  Pacific  connection 
had  come  from  the  fact  that  he  had  been  one 
of  the  builders  of  the  road  that  had  afterward 
merged  in  the  Oregon  Short  Line;  and  his 
financial  relations  had  been  those  of  a  financier 
and  not  a  politician.  In  all  the  years  that  I 
had  been  working  with  him,  I  had  never  known 
him  to  have  any  purpose  that  was  not  com- 
munistic in  its  final  aspect  and  designed  for 
the  good  of  his  people. 

Up  to  his  seventieth  year,  he  had  shown 
no  ill  result  of  his  early  hardships.  Living 
the  abstemious  life  of  the  orthodox  Mormon, 
to  whom  wine,  tobacco  and  even  tea  and 
coffee  are  prohibited,  he  had  seemed  inex- 
haustibly robust  and  untiring.  But  almost 
from  the  day  of  President's  Snow  accession 
to  office — deprived  of  the  sustaining  con- 
sciousness of  the  responsibilities  of  leadership 
— his  physical  strength  gave  signs  of  breaking. 
In  the  fall  of  1900  he  made  a  trip  to  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  to  recuperate,  and  to  assist  at 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Mormon  mission 
that  he  had  founded  there;  but  the  Utah 
winter  proved  too  rigorous  for  him  on  his 

243 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

return,  and  in  March,  1901,  he  was  taken  to 
California — to  Monterey.  In  April  the  word 
came  to  me  in  New  York  that  he  was  sinking. 

I  found  him  in  a  cottage  overlooking  the 
beautiful  Bay  of  Monterey  and  its  wooded 
slope ;  and  the  doctors  in  attendance  told  me 
that  he  had  been  kept  alive  only  by  the  deter- 
mination to  see  me  before  he  died.  There 
was  no  hope.  He  had  still  a  clear  mind,  but 
with  ominous  lapses  of  unconsciousness  that 
foreboded  the  end;  and  in  these  intervals  of 
coma,  as  we  wheeled  him  to  and  fro  on  the 
veranda  in  an  invalid  chair — in  an  attempt 
to  refresh  him  with  the  motion  of  the  sea  air — 
he  would  swing  his  right  hand  upward,  with 
an  old  pulpit  gesture,  and  say  ''Priesthood! 
Priesthood!"  as  if  in  that  word  he  expressed 
the  ruling  thought  of  his  life,  the  inspiration 
that  had  sustained  his  power,  the  obligation 
that  had  governed  him  in  his  direction  of  his 
people. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  llth  of  April,  he 
was  lying  in  a  stupor  on  a  couch  before  an 
open  window,  with  the  sound  of  the  surf  in 
the  quiet  room.  One  of  the  doctors  entered, 
looked  at  him  intently,  and  said  to  me :  "I  can 
do  nothing  more  here — and  my  patients  need 
me  in  San  Francisco.  He  can't  last  long. 
He'll  probably  never  recover  consciousness. 
If  there's  anything  imperative — anything  you 
must  say  to  him — any  word  you  wish  to  have 
from  him — you  could  perhaps  rouse  him" — 

244 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

I  said  "  No."  We  had  never  intruded  upon 
any  mood  of  his  silence  during  his  masterful 
life;  and  I  felt  a  jealous  rebellion  against  the 
idea  that  we  should  intrude  now  upon  this 
last,  helpless  silence  of  unconsciousness.  The 
doctor  left  us.  I  summoned  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  family  from  the  veranda  to  the 
bedside.  He  lay  motionless  and  placid, 
scarcely  breathing,  his  eyes  closed,  his  hands 
folded.  In  accordance  with  the  rites  of  the 
Church,  we  laid  our  hands  on  his  head,  while 
my  eldest  brother  said  the  prayer  of  filial 
blessing  that  "sealed"  the  dying  man  to 
eternity. 

In  the  silence  that  followed  the  last  "  Amen  " 
of  the  prayer,  he  opened  his  eyes,  and  said 
in  a  steady,  strong  voice :  "  You  thought  I  was 
passing  away?" 

We  replied  that  we  had  seen  he  was  very 
weak. 

With  a  glance  at  the  door  through  which 
the  physician  had  departed,  he  said  resolutely : 
"I  shall  go  when  my  Father  calls  me — and 
not  till  then.  I  shall  know  the  moment,  and 
I  will  not  struggle  against  His  command. 
Lift  me  up.  Carry  me  out  on  the  balcony 
I  want  to  see  the  water  once  more.  And  I 
want  to  talk  with  you." 

To  me,  it  was  the  last  struggle  of  the  un- 
conquerable will  that  had  silently,  composedly, 
cheerfully  fought  and  overcome  every  ob- 
stacle that  had  opposed  the  purposes  of  his 

245 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

manhood  for  half  a  century.  He  would  not 
yield  even  to  death  at  the  dictation  of  man. 
He  would  go  when  he  was  ready — when  his 
mind  had  accepted  the  inevitable  as  the  de- 
cree of  God. 

We  sat  around  his  couch  on  the  veranda, 
and  for  two  hours  he  talked  to  us  as  clearly 
and  as  forcibly  as  ever.  He  spoke  of  the 
Church  and  of  its  mission  in  the  world,  with 
all  the  hope  of  a  religious  altruist.  From 
the  humblest  beginnings,  it  had  grown  to  the 
greatest  power.  From  the  depths  of  perse- 
cution, it  had  risen  to  win  favor  from  the 
wisest  among  men.  It  had  abolished  poverty 
for  hundreds  of  thousands,  by  its  sound  com- 
munal system.  In  its  religious  solidarity, 
it  had  become  a  guardian  and  administrator 
of  equal  justice  within  all  the  sphere  of  its 
influence.  It  was  full  of  the  most  splendid 
possibilities  of  good  for  mankind. 

With  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  sea — facing 
eternity  as  calmly  as  he  faced  that  great 
symbol  of  eternity — he  voiced  the  sincerity  of 
his  life  and  the  hope  that  had  animated  his 
statesmanship.  In  an  exaltation  of  spiritual- 
ity that  made  the  moment  one  of  the  sublime 
experiences  of  my  life,  he  adjured  us  all  to 
hold  true  to  our  covenants.  I  do  not  write 
of  his  personal  words  of  love  and  admonition 
to  the  members  of  his  family.  I  wish  to 
express  only  the  aspects  that  may  be  of  public 
interest,  in  his  last  aspirations — for  these 

246 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

were  the  aspirations  of  the  Mormon  leaders 
of  the  older  generation,  whom  he  represented 
— and  they  are  the  aspirations  of  all  the  wise 
among  the  Mormons  today,  whatever  may  be 
the  folly  and  the  treachery  of  their  Prophets. 

Ten  hours  later,  he  was  dead. 

I  cannot  pretend  that  I  had  any  true  appre- 
hension, then,  of  what  his  loss  meant  to  the 
community.  I  had  no  clearer  vision  of  events 
than  others.  I  felt  that  I  had  no  longer  any 
tie  to  connect  me  closely  with  the  government 
of  the  Church,  and  I  was  willing  to  stand  aside 
from  its  affairs,  believing  that  the  momentum 
of  progress  imparted  to  it  would  carry  it 
forward.  The  nation  had  cleared  the  path 
for  it.  Its  faith,  put  into  practice  as  a  social 
gospel,  had  been  freed  of  the  offensive  things 
that  had  antagonized  the  world.  My  father's 
last  messages  of  hope  remained  with  me  as  a 
cheering  prophecy. 

At  his  funeral  in  the  great  tabernacle, 
President  Snow  put  forward  a  favorite  son, 
Leroy,  to  read  an  official  statement  in  which 
the  President  took  occasion  to  deny  that  my 
father  had  dictated  the  recent  policies  of  the 
Church:  those  policies,  he  said,  had  been 
solely  the  President's.  (He  is  welcome  to  the 
credit  of  them!)  Joseph  F.  Smith  showed 
more  generosity  of  emotion,  now  that  his 
path  of  succession  was  clear  of  the  superior 
in  authority  whom  he  had  so  long  regarded 
enviously;  and  he  spoke  of  my  father,  both 

247 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

privately  and  in  public,  in  a  way  that  won  me 
to  him. 

The  shock  of  grief  had  perhaps  "  mellowed  " 
me.  I  felt  more  tolerant  of  these  men,  since 
I  was  no  longer  necessarily  engaged  in  oppos- 
ing them.  When  President  Snow  died  (Octo- 
ber, 1901),  I  shared  only  the  general  interest 
in  the  way  Joseph  F.  Smith  set  about  asserting 
his  family's  title  to  rulership  of  the  "  Kingdom 
of  God  on  Earth;"  for,  in  effect,  he  notified 
the  world  that  his  branch  of  the  Smith  family 
had  been  designated  by  Divine  revelation  to 
rule  in  the  affairs  of  all  men,  by  an  appoint- 
ment that  had  never  been  revoked.  He  has 
since  made  his  cousin,  John  Henry  Smith, 
his  First  Councillor;  and  he  has  inducted  his 
son  Hyrum  into  the  apostolate  by  "revela- 
tion." This  latter  act  roused  the  jealousy 
of  the  mother  of  his  son  Joseph  F.  Smith,  Jr., 
and  the  amused  gossip  of  the  Mormons  pre- 
dicted another  revelation  that  should  give 
Joseph  Jr.  a  similar  promotion.  The  revela- 
tion came.  So  many  others  have  also  come 
that  the  Smith  family  is  today  represented  in 
the  hierarchy  by  Joseph  F.  Smith,  President, 
"Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator  to  all  the 
world;"  John  Smith  (a  brother)  presiding 
Patriarch  over  the  whole  human  race;  John 
Henry  Smith  (a  cousin)  Apostle  and  First 
Councillor  to  the  President;  Hyrum  Smith 
and  Joseph  F.  Smith  (sons)  Apostles;  George 
A.  Smith  (son  of  John  Henry)  apostle ;  David 

248 


UNDER  TH£  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

S.  Smith  (son  of  Joseph  F.)  Councillor  to  the 
presiding  Bishop  of  the  Church  and  in  line 
of  succession  to  the  bishopric;  and  Bathseba 
W.  Smith,  President  of  the  Relief  Societies.* 
As  Joseph  F.  Smith  has  still  thirty  other  sons — 
and  at  least  four  wives  who  are  not  represented 
in  the  apostolate — there  may  yet  be  a  quorum 
of  Smiths  to  succeed  endlessly  to  the  Presi- 
dency and  make  the  Smith  family  a  perpetual 
dynasty  in  Utah. 

It  is  one  of  the  fascinating  contradictions 
of  Mormonism  that  many  of  the  sincere 
people — who  smilingly  predicted  the  Divine 
interposition  by  which  this  family  succession 
was  founded — accept  its  rule  devoutly.  "  The 
Lord,"  they  will  tell  you,  "will  look  after  the 
Church.  If  these  men  are  good  enough  for 
God,  they  are  good  enough  for  me.  I  do  not 
have  to  save  the  Kingdom."  And  they  con- 
tinue paying  their  devotion  (and  their  tithes) 
to  a  family  autocracy  whose  imposition  would 
have  provoked  a  rebellion  in  any  other  com- 
munity in  the  civilized  world ! 

It  is  "the  will  of  the  Lord!" 


*She  has  died  since  this  was  written. 


249 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  CONSPIRACY  COMPLETED 

The  Smiths  were  no  sooner  firm  in  power 
than  rumors  began  to  circulate  of  a  recrudes- 
cence of  plural  marriage^and  I  heard  reports 
of  political  plots  by  which  the  Prophets  were 
to  re-establish  their  autocracy  in  worldly  affairs 
in  the  name  of  God.  I  sought  to  close  my 
mind  against  such  accusations,  for  I  remem- 
bered how  often  my  father  had  been  mis- 
judged, and  I  felt  that  nothing  but  the  most 
direct  evidence  should  be  permitted  to  con- 
vince me  of  a  recession  by  the  Church  authori- 
ties from  the  miraculous  opportunity  of  pro- 
gress that  was  now  open  to  their  leadership. 
Such  direct  evidence  came,  in  part,  in  the 
state  elections  of  1902. 

The  Utah  Democrats  re-nominated  Wm. 
H.  King  for  Congress;  Senator  Joseph  L. 
Rawlins  was  their  candidate  to  succeed  him- 
self in  the  United  States  Senate.  The  Repub- 
licans nominated  President  Smith's  friend, 
Joseph  Howell,  for  Congress ;  and  there  began 
to  spread  a  rumor  that  Apostle  Reed  Smoot 
was  to  become  a  Republican  candidate  for 
the  Senatorship  under  an  old  promise  given 
him  by  President  Snow  and  now  endorsed  by 
President  Smith.  I  had  been  made  state 

250 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

chairman  of  the  Democratic  party;  and  with 
the  growing  report  of  Apostle  Smoot's  candi- 
dacy, I  observed  a  gradual  cessation  of  politi- 
cal activity  on  the  part  of  those  prominent 
Democrats  who  were  close  to  the  Church 
leaders. 

Now,  our  party  was  not  making  war  on  the 
Church  nor  on  any  of  its  proper  missions  in 
the  world.  Our  candidates  were  capable  and 
popular  men  against  whom  no  just  ecclesiasti- 
cal antagonism  could  be  raised.  We  were 
asking  no  favors  from  the  Church.  And  we 
were  determined  to  have  no  opposition  from 
the  Church  without  a  protest  and  an  under- 
standing. 

For  this  reason — after  consulting  confi- 
dentially with  the  leaders  of  our  party — 
I  undertook  to  make  a  personal  visit  to  Presi- 
dent Smith's  office  to  demand  that  the  Church 
authorities  should  keep  their  hands  out  of 
politics.  But  even  while  I  discussed  the 
matter  with  our  party  leaders,  I  was  afraid 
that  some  of  them  might  betray  our  concerted 
purpose  to  Church  headquarters.  And  my 
fear  was  well  grounded.  When  I  went  to 
the  offices  of  the  Presidency,  the  authorities — 
for  the  first,  last  and  only  time — refused  to 
see  me;  and  the  secretary  betrayed  a  knowl- 
edge of  my  mission  by  telling  me  that  I  should 
hear  from  some  one  of  the  hierarchy,  later. 

Two  or  three  days  afterward,  Apostle  M.  F. 
Cowley  came  to  me  with  word  that  my  call 

251 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

had  been  considered  and  that  he  had  been 
deputed  to  talk  with  me.  We  appointed  a 
time  for  conference  in  my  rooms  at  Demo- 
cratic headquarters,  where  we  spent  the  large 
part  of  a  day  in  consultation.  And  since  the 
argument  between  us  covered  the  whole 
ground  of  Apostle  Smoot's  candidacy,  I  wish 
to  give  an  account  of  that  interview,  as  a  brief 
exposition  of  some  of  the  present-day  aspects 
of  the  Church's  interference  in  politics. 

Apostle  Cowley  and  I  had  been  boyhood 
friends.  He  had  been  one  of  the  older  stu- 
dents at  the  school  that  I  had  attended  as  a 
child;  and  I  knew  the  integrity  and  direct- 
ness of  his  character.  He  was  a  stocky, 
strong  man,  with  a  wholesome  sort  of  face, 
brown  with  the  sunburn  of  his  missionary 
travels  in  Canada  and  in  Mexico.  (He  had 
been,  in  fact,  solemnizing  plural  marriages 
in  these  polygamous  refuges — as  we  found 
out  later.) 

As  soon  as  it  was  clearly  understood  be- 
tween us  that  I  represented  the  Democratic 
state  committee  and  he  represented  the  Church 
authorities,  I  asked  for  an  explanation  of 
Apostle  Smoot's  candidacy. 

Cowley  began  by  admitting  the  candidacy, 
which  President  Smith  had  endorsed  (he  said) 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  some  of  the 
apostles.  He  argued  that  Apostle  Smoot 
was  only  exercising  his  right  of  American 
citizenship  in  aspiring  to  the  Senatorship; 

252 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  he  explained  that  the  Church  authorities 
did  not  see  \frhy  the  Church  should  be  drawn 
into  the  campaign. 

But,  as  I  pointed  out  to  him,  the  Church 
had  already  drawn  itself  in.  It  had  held  a 
solemn  conclave  of  its  hierarchy  to  authorize 
an  apostle's  candidacy.  The  opponents  of 
Church  rule  would  circulate  the  fact;  in  any 
close  campaign,  the  apostle's  friends  would 
use  the  fact  upon  the  faithful;  and  the  Church 
would  be  compelled  to  support  its  apostle  in 
an  assumed  necessity  of  defending  itself. 

Perhaps  I  was  objectionably  forceful  in  my 
reply  to  him.  With  his  characteristic  gentle- 
ness, he  rebuked  me  by  recalling  that  Presi- 
dent Woodruff  had  once  taken  him  into 
"sacred  places,"  assured  him  that  "Frank 
Cannon,  like  David,  was  a  man  after  God's 
own  heart,"  and  asked  him  to  "labor"  for 
me  in  politics.  If  it  had  been  right  for  the 
Prophet  of  God  to  favor  me,  why  was  it  not 
right  for  the  Prophet  now  to  favor  some  one 
else? 

My  personal  regard  for  Apostle  Cowley 
kept  me  from  showing  the  amusement  I  felt 
at  finding  myself  in  this  new  scriptural  role — 
remembering  how  President  Woodruff  had 
once  devoted  me  to  destruction  like  another 
Isaac  on  the  altar  of  Church  control.  I  replied 
to  Cowley,  as  soberly  as  I  could,  that  I  had 
never  consciously  received  the  aid  of  any 
Church  influence;  that  I  had  always  objected 

253 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  its  use,  either  for  or  against  either  party; 
that  I  could  oppose  it  now  with  free  hands. 

He  retreated  upon  the  favorite  argument 
of  the  ecclesiasts:  that  an  apostle  did  not 
relinquish  his  citizenship  because  of  his 
Church  rank;  that  the  very  political  freedom 
which  we  demanded,  to  be  effective,  must 
apply  to  all  men,  in  or  out  of  the  Church. 
He  asked  naively:  "What  did  we  get  state- 
hood for — and  amnesty — and  our  political 
rights — if  we're  not  to  enjoy  them?" 

The  answer  to  that  was  obvious:  The 
Mormon  Church  is  so  constructed  that  the 
apostle  carries  with  him  the  power  of  the 
Church  wherever  he  appears.  The  whole 
people  recognize  in  him  the  personified  author- 
ity of  the  Church;  and  if  an  apostle  were 
allowed  to  make  a  political  campaign  without 
a  denunciation  from  the  other  Church  author- 
ities, it  would  be  known  that  he  had  been 
selected  for  political  office  by  "  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  Almighty."  I  cited  the  case  of  Apostle 
Moses  Thatcher  as  proof  that  the  Church  did 
exercise  power  openly  to  negative  an  apostle's 
ambition.  If  it  failed  now  to  rebuke  Smoot, 
this  very  failure  would  be  an  affirmative  use 
of  its  power  in  his  behalf;  all  Mormons  who 
did  not  wish  to  raise  their  hands  against 
"the  Lord's  anointed,"  would  have  to  sup- 
port Smoot 's  legislative  ticket,  regardless  of 
their  political  convictions;  and  all  Gentiles 
and  independent  Mormons  would  have  to 

254 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

fight  the  intrusion  of  the  Church  into  open 
political  activities. 

Cowley  replied  that  "the  brethren" — 
meaning  the  hierarchy — believed  that  a 
Mormon  should  have  as  many  political  rights, 
as  a  Catholic;  and  he  asked  me  if  I  would 
object  to  seeing  a  Catholic  in  the  Senate. 

Of  course  not.  There  are,  and  have  been, 
many  such.  "But  suppose,"  I  argued,  "that 
the  Pope  were  to  select  one  of  his  Italian 
cardinals  to  come  to  this  country  and  be 
naturalized  in  some  state  of  this  Union  that 
was  under  the  sole  rule  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church;  and  suppose  that — still  holding  his 
princedom  in  the  Catholic  Church  and  exer- 
cising the  plenary  authority  conferred  on  him 
by  the  Pope — suppose  he  were  to  appear 
before  the  Senate  in  his  robes  of  office,  with 
his  credentials  as  a  Senator  from  his  Church- 
ruled  state — all  of  this  being  a  matter  of 
public  knowledge — do  you  think  the  Senate 
would  seat  him?  Certainly  not.  Yet  the 
cases  are  exactly  analogous.  We  were  but 
lately  alien  and  proscribed.  We  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  Union  on  a  covenant  that  for- 
bade Church  interference  in  politics.  It  is  the 
whole  teaching  of  the  Church  that  a  Prophet 
wears  his  prophetic  authority  constantly  as  a 
robe  of  office.  The  case  of  Moses  Thatcher 
is  proof  to  the  world  that  the  Church  appoints 
and  disappoints  at  its  pleasure.  I  don't 
believe  that  Smoot,  if  elected,  will  be  allowed 

255 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  hold  his  seat,  and — if  he  is  allowed  to  hold 
it — a  greater  trouble  than  his  exclusion  will 
surely  follow.  For,  with  the  princes  of  the 
Mormon  Church  holding  high  place  in  the 
national  councils — and  using  the  power  of 
the  Church  to  maintain  themselves  there — 
we  are  assuring  for  ourselves  an  indefinite 
future  of  the  most  bitter  controversy." 

When  Cowley  had  no  more  arguments  to 
offer,  he  said :  "  Well,  the  Prophet  has  spoken. 
That's  enough  for  me.  I  submit  cheerfully 
when  the  will  of  the  Lord  comes  to  me  through 
his  appointed  servants.  The  matter  has 
been  decided,  and  it  does  not  lie  in  your  power 
— or  anyone  else's — to  withstand  the  purposes 
of  the  Almighty."  He  rose  and  put  his  hand 
on  my  shoulder,  affectionately.  "  Your  father 
is  gone,  Frank.  I  loved  him  very  dearly. 
I  hope  that  you  are  not  going  to  be  found 
warring  against  the  Lord's  anointed." 

"Mat,"  I  replied,  "you  have  already 
pointed  out  that  Apostle  Smoot  appears  in 
politics  only  as  an  American  citizen.  For 
the  purposes  of  this  fight — and  to  avoid  the 
consequences  that  you  fear — I'll  regard  him 
as  a  politician  merely,  and  fight  him  as  such." 

"But,  you  know,  Frank,"  he  remonstrated, 
"he  has  been  consecrated  to  the  apostleship, 
and  I'm  afraid  that  you'll  overstep  the 
bounds." 

"  Mat,"  I  assured  him,  "  I'll  watch  carefully, 
and  unless  he  makes  his  lightning  changes 

256 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

too  fast,  111  aim  my  shots  only  when  he's  in 
his  political  clothes.  If  the  change  is  too  in- 
definite, blame  yourselves  and  not  us.  The 
whole  teaching  of  the  Church  is  that  an 
apostle  must  be  regarded  as  an  apostle  at 
all  times;  but  the  whole  teaching  of  politics 
is  that  all  men  should  appear  upon  equal 
terms — in  this  country.  That's  why  we 
insist  that  no  apostle  should  become  a  candi- 
date for  public  office." 

Cowley  took  his  departure  with  evident 
relief.  He  had  discharged  his  ambassadorial 
duty — and  given  me  the  warning  which  he 
had  been  authorized  to  deliver — without  a 
rupture  of  our  personal  friendship.  And  I 
saw  him  go,  for  my  part,  in  a  sorrowful  cer- 
tainty that  the  Church  had  thrown  off  all 
disguise  and  proposed  to  show  the  world,  by 
the  election  of  an  apostle  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  that  the  "Kingdom  of  God"  was 
established  in  Utah  to  rule  in  all  the  affairs 
of  men.  I  knew  that  if  Smoot  were  excluded 
from  the  Senate,  his  exclusion  would  be  argued 
a  proof  that  the  wicked  and  unregenerate 
nation  was  still  devilishly  persecuting  God's 
anointed  servants,  to  its  own  destruction; 
and,  if  he  were  permitted  to  take  his  seat, 
that  this  fact  would  be  cited  to  the  faithful 
as  proof  that  the  Prophets  had  been  called 
to  save  the  nation  from  the  destruction  that 
threatened  it! 

Of  course,  throughout  the  campaign  that 

257 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

followed,  the  Church's  newspapers  and  many 
of  its  political  workers  kept  protesting  publicly 
that  the  election  of  the  Republican  legislative 
ticket  did  not  mean  the  election  of  Apostle 
Smoot  to  the  Senate.  But  by  means  of  the 
authoritative  whisper  of  ecclesiasts — carried 
by  visiting  apostles  to  Presidents  of  Stakes, 
from  them  to  the  bishops,  and  from  the  bishops 
to  the  presiding  officers  of  subsidiary  organiza- 
tions— the  inspired  order  was  given  to  the 
faithful  that  they  must  vote  for  the  legislators 
who  could  be  relied  upon  to  do  the  will  of 
the  Lord  by  voting  for  the  Lord's  anointed 
prophet,  Apostle  Reed  Smoot.  This  message 
was  delivered  to  the  sacred  Sunday  prayer 
circles.  Even  Senator  Rawlins'  mother 
received  it,  from  one  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  her  ward,  who  instructed  her 
to  vote  against  the  election  of  her  own  son; 
and  it  was  "  at  the  peril  of  her  immortal  soul " 
that  she  disobeyed  the  injunction.  Long 
before  election  day,  every  Mormon  knew  that 
he  had  been  called  upon  by  the  Almighty  to 
sacrifice  his  individual  conviction  in  politics 
to  protect  his  "assailed  Church.'* 

The  profound  effectiveness  of  that  appeal 
needs  no  further  proof  than  the  issue  of  the 
election.  King  and  Rawlins,  the  popular 
leaders  of  the  Democracy  in  a  state  that  had 
but  recently  been  overwhelmingly  Democratic 
— after  a  campaign  in  wrhich  they  studiously 
avoided  an  attack  upon  the  Church — were 

258 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

overwhelmingly  defeated.  The  Republican 
legislative  ticket  was  carried.  Apostle  Smoot 
was  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate ;  and 
on  January  21,  1903,  Governor  Wells  issued 
to  him  a  certificate  of  election. 

Five  days  later,  a  number  of  prominent 
citizens  signed  a  protest,  to  President  Roose- 
velt and  the  Senate,  against  allowing  Apostle 
Smoot  to  take  his  seat.  And  the  grounds 
of  the  protest,  briefly  stated,  were  these: 
The  Mormon  priesthood  claimed  supreme 
authority  in  politics,  and  such  authority  was 
exercised  by  the  first  presidency  and  the 
twelve  apostles,  of  whom  Smoot  was  one. 
They  had  not  only  not  abandoned  the  practice 
of  political  dictation,  but  they  had  not  aban- 
doned the  belief  in  polygamy  and  polygamous 
cohabitation;  they  connived  at  and  encour- 
aged its  practice,  sought  to  pass  laws  that 
should  nullify  the  statutes  against  the  prac- 
tice, and  protected  and  honored  the  violators 
of  those  statutes.  And  they  had  done  all 
these  things  despite  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  civilized  world,  in  violation  of  the  pledges 
given  in  procuring  amnesty  and  in  obtaining 
the  return  of  the  escheated  Church  property, 
contrary  to  the  promises  given  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Church  and  of  the  territory 
in  their  plea  for  statehood,  contrary  to  the 
pledges  required  by  the  Enabling  Act  and 
given  in  the  State  constitution,  and  contrary 
to  the  laws  of  the  State  itself. 

259 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

These  charges  were  supported  by  innumer- 
able citations  from  the  published  doctrines 
of  the  Church,  and  from  the  published  speeches 
and  sermons  of  the  Prophets.  Evidence  was 
offered  of  the  continuance  of  polygamous 
cohabitation  (since  1890)  by  President  Smith, 
all  but  three  or  four  of  the  apostles,  the  entire 
Presidency  of  the  Salt  Lake  Stake  of  Zion, 
and  many  others.  New  polygamy  was  specif- 
ically charged  against  three  apostles,  and 
against  the  son  of  a  fourth.  A  second  protest, 
signed  by  John  L.  Leilich,  repeated  these 
grounds  of  objection  to  Apostle  Smoot,  and 
charged  further  that  Apostle  Smoot  was  him- 
self a  polygamist ;  but  no  attempt  was  made 
to  prove  this  latter  charge. 

Upon  the  riling  of  the  protest,  there  was  a 
storm  of  anger  at  Church  headquarters;  and 
the  ecclesiastical  newspapers  railed  with  the 
bitterness  of  anxious  apprehension.  Through- 
out Utah  it  seemed  to  be  the  popular  belief 
that  Apostle  Smoot  would  be  excluded — 
on  the  issue  of  whether  a  responsible  repre- 
sentative of  a  Church  that  was  protecting 
and  encouraging  law-breaking  should  be 
allowed  a  seat  in  the  highest  body  of  the 
nation's  law-makers.  But  the  issue  against 
him  was  not  to  be  heard  until  twelve  months 
after  his  election,  and  every  agent  and  in- 
fluence of  the  Church  was  set  to  work  at  once 
to  nullify  the  effect  of  the  protest. 

Every  financial  institution,  East  or  West, 

260 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  which  the  Church  could  appeal,  was  solicited 
to  demand  a  favorable  hearing  of  the  Smoot 
case  from  the  Senators  of  its  state.  Every 
political  and  business  interest  that  could  be 
reached  was  moved  to  protect  the  threatened 
Apostle.  The  sugar  trust  magnates  and  their 
Senators  were  enlisted.  The  mercantile  cor- 
respondents of  the  Church  were  urged  to  write 
letters  to  their  Congressmen  and  to  their 
Senators,  and  to  use  their  power  at  home  to 
check  the  anti-Mormon  newspapers.  The 
Utah  representative  of  a  powerful  mercantile 
institution,  that  had  vital  business  relations 
with  the  Church,  confessed  to  me  that  he  had 
been  called  East  to  consult  with  the  head  of 
his  company,  who  had  been  asked  to  use  his 
influence  for  Smoot.  "  I  could  not  advise 
our  president,"  he  said,  "to  send  the  letter 
that  was  demanded  of  him.  And  yet  I 
couldn't  take  the  responsibility  of  injuring 
the  company  by  advising  him  to  refuse  the 
Church  request.  You  know,  if  we  had  refused 
it,  point-blank,  they  would  have  destroyed 
every  interest  we  had  within  the  domain  of 
their  power.  I  should  have  been  ruined 
financially.  All  our  stockholders  would  have 
suffered.  They  would  never  have  forgiven 
me." 

The  president  of  the  company  failed  to 
send  the  letter.  His  failure  became  known, 
through  Church  espionage  and  the  report  of 
the  Church's  friends  in  the  Senate.  Pressure 

261 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

was  brought  to  bear  upon  him;  and,  with  the 
aid  of  his  Utah  representative,  he  compromised 
on  a  letter  that  did  partial  violence  to  his 
conscience  and  partially  endangered  his  busi- 
ness relations  with  the  Church. 

Both  these  men  were  aware  that  the  Church 
had  broken  its  covenants  to  the  country,  and 
that  Apostle  Smoot  could  not  be  either  a 
loyal  citizen  of  the  nation  or  a  free  representa- 
tive of  the  people  of  his  state.  "I  did  not 
like  the  compromise  we  made,"  my  friend 
told  me.  "  I  feel  humiliated  whenever  I  think 
of  it.  But  I  tried  to  do  the  best  I  could  under 
the  circumstances." 

The  results  of  this  pressure  of  political  and 
business  interests  upon  Washington  showed 
gradually  in  the  tone  of  the  political  news- 
papers throughout  the  whole  country.  It 
showed  in  the  growing  confidence  expressed 
by  the  organs  of  the  Church  authorities  in 
Utah.  It  showed  in  the  cheerful  predictions 
of  the  Prophets  that  the  Lord  would  overrule 
in  Apostle  Smoot 's  behalf.  It  showed  in 
Smoot 's  exercise  of  an  autocratic  leadership 
in  the  political  affairs  of  the  State. 

He  was  allowed  to  take  his  oath  of  office  as 
Senator  on  March  5,  1903 ;  the  protests  against 
him  were  referred  to  the  Senate  Committee 
on  Privileges  and  Elections  for  a  hearing 
(January  27,  1904) ;  and  a  contest  began  that 
lasted  from  January,  1904,  to  February,  1907. 
During  those  years  was  completed  the  business 

262 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  political  conspiracy  between  financial 
"privilege"  and  religious  absolutism,  of 
which  conspiracy  this  narrative  has  described 
the  beginning  and  the  growth. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  expose  the  pro- 
gression of  incident  by  which  the  end  of  that 
conspiracy  was  approached — since  it  was 
necessarily  approached  in  the  darkest  secrecy. 
But  several  indications  of  the  method  and 
the  progress  did  show,  here  and  there,  on  the 
surface  of  events;  and  these  indications  are 
powerfully  significant. 

As  early  as  1901  it  had  become  known  that 
Apostle  Smoot  was  negotiating  a  sale,  to  the 
sugar  trust,  of  the  Church's  sugar  holdings. 
On  May  13,  1902,  the  president  of  the  trust 
reported  to  the  trust's  executive  committee* 
that  he  had  agreed  to  buy  a  one-half  interest 
in  the  consolidation  of  the  Mormon  factories 
of  La  Grande,  Logan  and  Ogden.  (The 
following  day,  May  14,  1902,  is  given  by 
Apostle  Smoot  as  the  day  on  which  he  obtained 
President  Joseph  F.  Smith's  permission  to 
become  a  candidate  for  the  Senatorship.)  On 
June  24,  1902  the  sugar  trust's  executive 
committee  was  informed  of  the  trust's  pur- 
chase of  one-half  of  the  capital  stock  of  these 
three  Church-owned  sugar  companies.  On 
July  5,  1902  the  three  companies  were  con- 

*See  a  synopsis  of  the  minutes  of  the  trust's  executive 
committee,  published  in  Hampton's  Magazine,  in  January, 
1910. 

263 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

V 

solid  at  ed  under  the  name  of  the  Amalgamated 
Sugar  Company,  with  David  Eccles,  polyga- 
mist,  trustee  of  Church  bonds,  and  protege 
of  Joseph  F.  Smith,  as  President;  and  the 
sugar  trust  took  half  the  stock,  in  exchange 
for  its  holdings  in  the  three  original  companies. 

Similarly,  in  this  same  year,  the  old  Church- 
owned  Utah  Sugar  Company  increased  its 
stock  in  order  to  buy  the  Garland  sugar  fac- 
tory, and  the  sugar  trust,  it  is  understood, 
was  concerned  in  the  purchase.  In  1903, 
1904  and  1905,  the  Idaho  Sugar  Company, 
the  Freemont  Sugar  Company,  and  West 
Idaho  Sugar  Company  were  incorporated; 
and  in  1906  all  these  companies  were  amal- 
gamated in  the  present  Utah- Idaho  Sugar 
Company,  of  which  Joseph  F.  Smith  is  presi- 
dent, T.  R.  Cutler,  a  Mormon,  is  vice-president, 
Horace  G.  Whitney,  the  general  manager  of 
the  Church's  Deseret  News,  is  secretary  and 
treasurer,  and  other  Church  officials  are  direc- 
tors. Of  the  stock  of  this  company  the  sugar 
trust  holds  fifty-one  per  cent.  So  that  between 
1902  and  1906  a  partnership  in  the  manu- 
facture of  beet  sugar  was  effected  between 
the  Church  and  the  trust ;  and  Apostle  Smoot 
became  a  Sugar  trust  Senator,  and  argued 
and  voted  as  such. 

Furthermore,  it  was  at  this  same  period 
that  the  Church  sold  the  street  railway  of 
Salt  Lake  City  and  its  electric  power  company 
to  the  "Harriman  interests"  under  peculiar 

264 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

circumstances — a  matter  of  which  I  have 
written  in  an  earlier  chapter.  The  Church 
owners  of  this  Utah  Light  and  Railway  Com- 
pany, through  the  Church's  control  of  the 
City  Council,  had  attempted  to  obtain  a 
hundred-year  franchise  from  the  city  on  terms 
that  were  outrageously  unjust  to  the  citizens; 
and  finally,  on  June  5,  1905,  a  franchise  was 
obtained  for  fifty  years,  for  the  company  of 
which  Joseph  F.  Smith  was  the  president. 
On  August  3,  1905,  another  city  ordinance 
was  passed,  consolidating  all  former  fran- 
chises, then  held  by  the  Utah  Light  and  Power 
Company,  but  originally  granted  to  D.  F. 
Walker,  the  Salt  Lake  and  Ogden  Gas  and 
Electric  Light  Company,  the  Pioneer  Power 
Company  and  the  Utah  Power  Company; 
and  this  ordinance  extended  the  franchises 
to  July  1,  1955.  The  properties  were  bonded 
for  $6,300,000,  but  it  was  understood  that 
they  were  worth  not  more  than  $4,000,000. 
They  were  sold  to  "the  Harriman  interests" 
for  $10,000,000.  The  equipment  of  the  Salt 
Lake  City  street  railway  was  worse  than 
valueless,  and  the  new  company  had  to  remove 
the  rails  and  discard  the  rolling  stock.  But 
the  ten  millions  were  well  invested  in  this 
public-utility  trust,  for  the  company  had  a 
monopoly  of  the  street  railway  service  and 
electric  power  and  gas  supply  of  Salt  Lake 
City;  and  its  franchises  left  it  free  to  extort 
whatever  it  could  from  the  people  of  the  whole 

265 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

country  side,  by  virtue  of  a  partnership  with 
the  Church  authorities  whereby  extortion 
was  given  the  protection  of  "God's  anointed 
Prophets." 

Joseph  F.  Smith,  of  course,  was  already  a 
director  of  Harriman's  Union  Pacific  Railroad, 
a  position  to  which  he  had  been  elected  after 
his  accession  to  the  First  Presidency.  And 
he  was  so  elected  not  because  of  his  railroad 
holdings — for  he  came  to  the  Presidency  a 
poor  man — and  not  because  of  his  ability  or 
experience  as  a  financier  or  a  railroad  builder, 
for  he  had  not  had  any  such  experience  and 
he  had  not  shown  any  such  ability.  He  was 
elected  because  of  the  partnership  between  the 
Church  leaders  and  the  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road— a  partnership  that  was  doubtlessly 
used  in  defence  of  Apostle  Smoot's  seat  in 
the  Senate,  just  as  the  power  of  the  Sugar 
Trust  was  used  and  the  influence  of  the  whole 
financial  confederation  in  politics. 


266 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SMOOT  EXPOSURE 

Just  before  the  subpoenas  were  issued  in 
the  Smoot  investigation,  I  met  John  R. 
Winder  (then  First  Councillor  to  President 
Smith)  on  the  street  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
he  expressed  the  hope  that  when  I  went  "to 
Washington  on  the  Smoot  case/'  I  would 
not  "  betray  "  my  "  brethren."  I  assured  him 
that  I  was  not  going  to  Washington  as  a  wit- 
ness in  the  Smoot  case;  that  the  men  whom 
he  should  warn,  were  at  Church  headquarters. 
He  replied,  with  indignant  alarm,  "  I  don't 
see  what '  the  brethren '  have  to  do  with  this  \ " 

But  when  the  subpoenas  arrived  for  Smith 
and  the  hierarchy,  alarm  and  indignation 
assumed  a  new  complexion.  The  authorities, 
for  themselves,  and  through  the  mouths  of 
such  men  as  Brigham  H.  Roberts,  began  to 
boast  of  how  they  were  about  to  "carry  the 
gospel  to  the  benighted  nation"  and  preach 
it  from  the  witness  stand  in  Washington. 
The  Mormon  communities  resounded  with 
fervent  praises  to  God  that  He  had,  through 
His  servant,  Apostle  Smoot,  given  the  oppor- 
tunity to  His  living  oracles  to  speak  to  an 
unrighteous  people!  And  when  the  Senators 
decided  that  they  would  not  summon  polyga- 

267 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

•'3 

mous  wives  and  their  children  en  bloc  to 
Washington  to  testify  (because  it  was  not 
desired  to  "make  war  on  women  and  children' ') 
some  of  Joseph  F.  Smith's  several  wives  even 
complained  feelingly  that  they  "were  not 
allowed  to  testify  for  Papa." 

The  first  oracular  disclosure  made  by  the 
Prophets,  on  the  witness  stand,  came  as  a 
shock  even  to  Utah.  They  testified  that  they 
had  resumed  polygamous  cohabitation  to 
an  extent  unsuspected  by  either  Gentiles  or 
Mormons.  President  Joseph  F.  Smith  ad- 
mitted that  he  had  had  eleven  children  borne 
to  him  by  his  five  wives,  since  pledging  himself 
to  obey  the  "revealed"  manifesto  of  1890 
forbidding  polygamous  relations.  Apostle 
Francis  Marion  Lyman,  who  was  next  in 
succession  to  the  Presidency,  made  a  similar 
admission  of  guilt,  though  in  a  lesser  degree. 
So  did  John  Henry  Smith  and  Charles  W. 
Penrose,  apostles.  So  did  Brigham  H. 
Roberts  and  George  Reynolds,  Presidents  of 
Seventies.  So  did  a  score  of  others  among 
the  lesser  authorities.  And  they  confessed 
that  they  were  living  in  polygamy  in  violation 
of  their  pledges  to  the  nation  and  the  terms 
of  their  amnesty,  against  the  laws  and  the 
constitution  of  the  state,  and  contrary  to  the 
" revelation^of  God"  by  which  the  doctrine 
of  polygamy  had  been  withdrawn  from  prac- 
tice in  the  Church! 

President  Joseph  F.  Smith  admitted  that 

268 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

he  was  violating  the  law  of  the  State.  He 
was  asked:  "Is  there  not  a  revelation  that 
you  shall  abide  by  the  law  of  the  State  and 
of  the  land?"  He  answered,  "Yes,  sir." 
He  was  asked:  "And  if  that  is  a  revelation, 
are  you  not  violating  the  laws  of  God  ?"  He 
answered:  "I  have  admitted  that,  Mr.  Sena- 
tor, a  great  many  times  here." 

Apostle  Francis  Marion  Lyman  was  asked: 
"  You  say  that  you,  an  apostle  of  your  Church, 
expecting  to  succeed  (if  you  survive  Mr. 
Smith)  to  the  office  in  which  you  will  be  the 
person  to  be  the  medium  of  Divine  revelations, 
are  living,  and  are  known  to  your  people  to 
live,  in  disobedience  of  the  law  of  the  land 
and  the  law  of  God?"  Apostle  Lyman 
answered:  "Yes,  sir."  The  others  pleaded 
guilty  to  the  same  charge. 

But  this  was  not  the  worst.  There  had  been 
new  polygamous  marriages.  Bishop  Chas. 
E.  Merrill,  the  son  of  an  apostle,  testified  that 
his  father  had  married  him  to  a  plural  wife 
in  1891,  and  that  he  had  been  living  with 
both  wives  ever  since.  A  Mrs.  Clara  Kennedy 
testified  that  she  had  been  married  to  a 
polygamist  in  1896,  in  Juarez,  Mexico,  by 
Apostle  Brigham  Young,  Jr.,  in  the  home  of 
the  president  of  the  stake.  There  was  testi- 
mony to  show  that  Apostle  George  Teasdale 
had  taken  a  plural  wife  six  years  after  the 
"manifesto"  forbidding  polygamy,  and  that 
Benjamin  Cluff,  Jr.,  president  of  the  Church 

269 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

university,  had  taken  a  plural  wife  in  1899. 
Some  ten  other  less  notorious  cases  were  ex- 
posed— including  those  of  M.  W.  Merrill,  an 
apostle,  and  J.  M.  Tanner,  superintendent 
of  Church  schools.  It  was  testified  that 
Apostle  John  W.  Taylor  had  taken  two  plural 
wives  ^within  four  years,  and  that  Apostle 
M.  F.  Cowley  had  taken  one;  and  both  these 
men  had  fled  from  the  country  in  order  to 
escape  a  summons  to  appear  before  the  Senate 
committee. 

President  Joseph  F.  Smith,  in  his  attempts 
to  justify  his  own  polygamy,  gave  some  very 
involved  and  contradictory  testimony.  He 
said  that  he  adhered  to  both  the  divine  revela- 
tion commanding  polygamy  and  the  divine 
revelation  "suspending"  the  command.  He 
said  he  believed  that  the  principle  of  plural 
marriage  was  still  as  " correct  a  principle"  as 
when  first  revealed,  but  that  the  "law  com- 
manding it "  had  been  suspended  by  President 
Woodruff's  manifesto.  He  said  that  he  ac- 
cepted President  Woodruff's  manifesto  as  a 
revelation  from  God,  but  he  objected  to  having 
it  called  "a  law  of  the  Church;"  he  insisted 
that  it  was  only  "  a  rule  of  the  Church."  He 
admitted  that  the  manifesto  forbidding  polyg- 
amy had  never  been  printed  among  the  other 
revelations  in  the  Church's  book  of  "  Doctrine 
and  Covenants,"  in  which  the  original  revela- 
tion commanding  polygamy  was  still  printed 
without  note  or  qualification  of  any  kind. 

270 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

He  admitted  that  this  anti-polygamy  mani- 
festo was  not  printed  in  any  of  the  other  doc- 
trinal works  which  the  Mormon  missionaries 
took  with  them  when  they  were  sent  out  to 
preach  the  Mormon  faith.  He  claimed  that 
the  manifesto  was  circulated  in  pamphlet 
form,  but  he  subsequently  admitted  that  the 
pamphlet  did  not  " state  in  terms"  that  the 
manifesto  was  a  ''revelation."  He  finally 
pleaded  that  the  manifesto  had  been  omitted 
from  the  book  of  "Doctrine  and  Covenants" 
by  an  "oversight,"  and  he  promised  to  have 
it  included  in  the  next  edition!* 

In  short,  it  was  shown,  by  the  testimony 
given  and  the  evidence  introduced,  not  only 
that  the  Church  authorities  persisted  in  living 
in  polygamy,  not  only  that  polygamous  mar- 
riages were  being  contracted,  but  that  the 
Church  still  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  polyg- 
amy and  taught  it  as  a  law  of  God. 

President  Joseph  F.  Smith  denied  the  right 
of  Congress  to  regulate  his  "private  conduct" 
as  a  polygamist.  "It  is  the  law  of  my  state 
to  which  I  am  amenable,"  he  said,  "and  if 
the  officers  of  the  law  have  not  done  their 
duty  toward  me  I  can  not  blame  them.  I 
think  they  have  some  respect  for  me." 

A  mass  of  testimony  showed  why  the  officers 
of  the  law  did  not  do  their  duty.  During 


*He  did  not  keep  his  promise.  The  manifesto  was  not 
added  to  the  book  of  revelations  until  some  time  later,  after 
considerable  protest  in  Utah. 

271 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  anti-polygamy  agitation  of  1899  (which 
ended  in  the  refusal  of  Congress  to  seat 
Brigham  H.  Roberts)  a  number  of  prosecu- 
tions of  polygamists  had  been  attempted. 
In  many  instances  the  county  attorney  had 
refused  to  prosecute  even  upon  sworn  in- 
formation. Wherever  prosecutions  were  had, 
the  fines  imposed  were  nominal;  these  were 
in  some  cases  never  paid,  and  in  other  cases 
paid  by  popular  subscription.  It  was  testified 
that  in  Box  Elder  County  subscription  lists 
had  been  circulated  to  collect  money  for  the 
fines,  but  that  the  fines  were  never  paid, 
though  the  subscriptions  had  been  collected. 
All  the  prosecutions  had  been  dropped,  at 
last.  It  was  pleaded  that  there  was  a  strong 
Gentile  sentiment  against  these  prosecutions, 
because  of  the  hope  that  no  new  polygamous 
marriages  were  being  contracted;  but  it  was 
shown  also,  that  the  Church  authorities  con- 
trolled the  enforcement  of  the  law  by  their 
influence  in  the  election  of  the  agents  of  the 
law. 

The  Church  controlled,  too,  the  making 
of  the  law.  For  example,  testimony  was  given 
to  show  that  in  1896  the  Church  authorities 
had  appointed  a  committee  of  six  elders  to 
examine  all  bills  introduced  into  the  Utah 
legislature  and  decide  which  were  "proper" 
to  be  passed.  In  the  neighboring  state  of 
Idaho,  the  legislature,  in  1904,  unanimously 
and  without  discussion  passed  a  resolution 

272 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  a  new  state  constitution  that  should  omit 
the  anti-polygamy  test  oath  clauses  objec- 
tionable to  the  Mormons ;  and  in  this  connec- 
tion it  was  testified  that  the  state  chairman 
of  both  political  parties  in  Idaho  always  went 
to  Salt  Lake  City,  before  a  campaign,  to 
consult  with  the  Church  authorities;  that 
every  request  of  the  authorities  made  to  the 
Idaho  political  leaders  was  granted ;  that  six 
of  the  twenty-one  countries  in  Idaho  were 
"absolutely  controlled"  by  Mormons,  and 
the  " balance  of  power"  in  six  counties  more 
was  held  by  Mormons;  and  that  it  was  " im- 
possible for  any  man  or  party  to  go  against 
the  Mormon  Church  in  Idaho."  Apostle 
John  Henry  Smith  testified  that  one-third 
of  the  population  of  Idaho  was  Mormon  and 
one-fourth  of  the  population  of  Wyoming, 
and  that  there  were  large  settlements  in 
Nevada,  Colorado,  California,  Arizona  and 
the  surrounding  states  and  territories. 

A  striking  example  of  the  power  of  the 
Church  as  against  the  power  of  the  nation 
was  given  to  the  Senate  committee  by  John 
Nicholson,  chief  recorder  of  the  temple  in 
Salt  Lake  City.  He  had  failed  to  produce 
some  of  the  temple  marriage  records  for  which 
the  committee  had  called.  He  was  asked 
whether  he  would  bring  the  books,  on  the 
order  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  if 
the  First  Presidency  of  the  Church  forbade 
him  to  bring  them.  He  answered:  " I  would 

273 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

not."  He  was  asked:  "And  if  the  Senate 
should  send  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the 
Senate  and  arrest  you  and  order  you  to  bring 
them"  (the  records)  "with  you,  you  would 
still  refuse  to  bring  them,  unless  the  First 
Presidency  asked  you  to?"  He  answered, 
^Yes,  sir." 

**  It  was  shown  that  classes  of  instruction  in 
the  Mormon  religion  had  been  forced  upon 
teachers  in  a  number  of  public  schools  in 
Utah  by  the  orders  of  the  First  Presidency. 
(These  orders  were  withdrawn  after  the  ex- 
posure before  the  committee.)  Church  con- 
trol had  gone  so  far  in  Brigham  City,  Box  Elder 
County,  Utah,  that  in  a  dispute  between  the 
City  Council  and  the  electric  lighting  company 
of  the  city,  the  local  ecclesiastical  council 
interfered.  In  the  same  city,  two  young  men 
built  a  dancing  pavilion  that  competed  with 
the  Church-owned  Opera  House;  the  ecclesi- 
astical council  "counselled"  them  to  remove 
the  pavilion  and  dispose  of  "the  material 
in  its  construction;"  they  were  threatened 
that  they  would  be  "dropped"  if  they  did 
not  obey  this  "counsel;"  and  they  compro- 
mised by  agreeing  to  pay  twenty-five  percent 
of  the  net  earnings  of  their  pavilion  into  the 
Church's  "stake  treasury."  In  Monroe  ward, 
Sevier  County,  Utah,  in  1901,  SL  Mormon 
woman  named  Cora  Birdsall  had  a  dispute 
with  a  man  named  James  E.  Leavitt  about 
a  title  to  land.  Leavitt  went  into  the  Bishop's 

274 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

court  and  got  a  decision  against  her.  She 
wrote  to  President  Joseph  F.  Smith  for  per- 
mission either  to  appeal  the  case  direct  to 
him  or  "to  go  to  law"  in  the  matter;  and 
Smith  advised  her  "to  follow  the  order  pro- 
vided of  the  Lord  to  govern  in  your  case." 
The  dispute  was  taken  through  the  ecclesi- 
astical courts  and  decided  against  her.  She 
refused  to  deed  the  land  to  Leavitt  and  she  was 
excommunicated  by  order  of  the  High  Council 
of  the  Sevier  Stake  of  Zion.  She  became 
insane  as  a  result  of  this  punishment,  and  her 
mother  appealed  to  the  stake  president  to 
grant  her  some  mitigation.  He  wrote,  in 
reply:  "Her  only  relief  will  be  in  complying 
with  President  Smith's  wishes.  You  say 
she  has  never  broken  a  rule  of  the  Church. 
You  forget  that  she  has  done  so  by  failing  to 
abide  by  the  decision  of  the  mouthpiece  of 
God."  She  finally  gave  up  a  deed  to  the 
disputed  land  and  was  rebaptized  in  1904. 
(Letters  of  the  First  Presidency  were,  how- 
ever, introduced  to  show  that  it  had  been 
the  policy  of  the  presidency — particularly 
in  President  Woodruff's  day — not  to  interfere 
in  disputes  involving  titles  to  land.) 

It  was  testified  that  a  Mormon  merchant 
was  expelled  from  the  Church,  ostensibly  for 
apostasy,  but  really  because  he  engaged  in 
the  manufacture  of  salt  "against  the  interests 
of  the  President  of  the  Church  and  some  of 
his  associates;"  that  a  Mormon  Church  offi- 

275 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

cial  was  deposed  "  for  distributing,  at  a  school 
election,  a  ticket  different  from  that  pre- 
scribed by  the  Church  authorities" — and  so 
on,  interminably. 

Witness  after  witness  swore  to  the  incidents 
of  Church  interference  in  politics  which  this 
narrative  has  already  related  in  detail.  But 
no  attempt  was  made  to  show  the  Church's 
partnership  with  the  "interests;"  and  the 
power  of  the  Church  in  business  circles  was 
left  to  be  inferred  from  President  Smith's 
testimony  that  he  was  then  president  of  the 
Zion's  Co-operative  Mercantile  Institution, 
the  State  Bank  of  Utah,  the  Zion's  Savings 
Bank  and  Trust  Company,  the  Utah  Sugar 
Company,  the  Consolidated  Wagon  and  Ma- 
chine Company,  the  Utah  Light  and  Power 
Company,  the  Salt  Lake  and  Los  Angeles 
Railroad  Company,  the  Saltair  Beach  Com- 
pany, the  Idaho  Sugar  Company,  the  Inland 
Crystal  Salt  Company,  the  Salt  Lake  Knitting 
Company,  and  the  Salt  Lake  Dramatic  Asso- 
ciation; and  that  he  was  a  director  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railway  Company,  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  Bullion- Beck  and  Champion 
Mining  Company,  and  editor  of  the  Improve- 
ment Era  and  the  Juvenile  Instructor. 

It  was  shown  that  Utah  had  not  been  ad- 
mitted to  statehood  until  the  Federal  govern- 
ment had  exacted,  from  the  Church  authorities 
and  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  Utah, 
every  sort  of  pledge  that  polygamy  had  been 

276 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

forever  abandoned  and  polygamous  relations 
discontinued    by    "revelation    from    God   ; 
that  statehood  had  not  been  granted  unti 
solemn  promise  had  been  given  and  provision 
made  that  there  should  be  "  no  union  of  church 
and  state,"  and  no  church  should  "dominate 
the  state  or  interfere  with  its  functions ;     am 
that   the   Church's   escheated   property   had 
been    restored    upon    condition    that    such 
property  should  be  used  only  for  the  relief 
of  the  poor  of  the  Church,  for  the  education 
of  its  children  and  for  the  building  and  repair 
of  houses  of  worship  "  in  which  the  rightfulness 
of  the  practice  of  polygamy"  should  not  be 
"inculcated." 

Therefore  the  testimony  given  before  the 
Senate  committee  by  these  members  of 
Mormon  hierarchy,  showed  that  they  had  not 
only  broken  their  covenants  and  violated 
their  oaths,  but  that  they  had  been  guilty 
of  treason.  What  was  the  remedy  ?  Jeremiah 
M  Wilson,  a  lawyer  employed  by  the  Church 
authorities  in  1888  to  argue,  before  a  Con- 
gressional committee,  in  behalf  of  the  admis- 
sion of  Utah  to  statehood,  had  pointed  out 
the  remedy  in  these  words : 

"  It  is  idle  to  say  that  such  a  compact  may 
be  made,  and  then,  when  the  considerations 
have  been  mutually  received— statehood  on 
the  one  side  and  the  pledge  not  to  do  a  par- 
ticular thing  on  the  other— either  party  can 
violate  it  without  remedy  to  the  other. 


277 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

you  ask  me  what  is  the  remedy,  and  I  answer 
that  there  are  plenty  of  remedies  in  your  own 
hands. 

"Suppose  they  violate  this  compact;  sup- 
pose that  after  they  put  this  into  the  con- 
stitution, and  thereby  induce  you  to  grant 
them  the  high  privilege  and  political  right 
of  statehood,  they  should  turn  right  around 
and  exercise  the  bad  faith  which  is  attributed 
to  them  hej^ — what  would  you  do?  You 
could  shut  trie  doors  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  against  them;  you  could 
deny  them  a  voice  in  the  councils  of  this 
nation,  because  they  have  acted  in  bad  faith 
and  violated  their  solemn  agreement  by  which 
they  succeeded  in  getting  themselves  into 
the  condition  of  statehood.  You  could  deny 
them  the  Federal  judiciary;  you  could  deny 
them  the  right  to  use  the  mails — that  indis- 
pensable thing  in  the  matter  of  trade  and  com- 
merce of  this  country.  There  are  many  ways 
in  which  peaceably,  but  all  powerfully,  you 
could  compel  the  performance  of  that  com- 
pact." 

This  argument  by  Mr.  Wilson  in  1888  was 
recalled  by  the  counsel  for  the  protestants  in 
the  investigation.  '-It  was  recalled  with  the 
qualification  that  though  Congress  might 
not  have  the  power  to  undo  the  sovereignty 
of  the  state  of  Utah  it  could  deal  with  Senator 
Smoot.  And  it  was  further  argued:  "The 
chief  charge  against  Senator  Smoot  is  that 

278 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

he  encourages,  countenances,  and  connives 
at  the  defiant  violation  of  law.  He  is  an 
integral  part  of  a  hierarchy;  ^he  is  an  integral 
part  of^a  quorum  of  twelve*  who  constitute 
the  backbone  of  the  Church.  .  .  .  He,  as 
one  of  that  quorum  of  twelve  apostles,  en- 
courages, connives  at,]^and  countenances 
defiance  of  law." 

On  June  11,  1906,  a  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee made  a  report  to  the  Senate  recom- 
mending that  Apostle  Smoot  was  not  entitled 
to  his  seat  in  the  Senate.  They  found  that 
he  was  one  of  a  "self -perpetuating  body  of 
fifteen  men,  uniting  in  themselves  authority 
in  both  Church  and  state,"  who  "so  exercise 
this  authority  as  to  encourage  a  belief  in 
polygamy  as_a  divine  institution,  and^  by 
both  precept  and  example  encourage  among 
their  followers  the  practice  of  polygamy  and 
polygamous  cohabitation;"  that  the  Church 
authorities  had  "endeavored  to  suppress,  and 
succeed  in  suppressing,  a  great  deal  of  testi- 
mony by  which  the  fact  of  plural  marriages 
contracted  by  those  who^were  high  in  the 
councils  of  the  Church  might  have  been  estab- 
lished beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt;"  and 
that  "aside  from  this  it  was  shown  by  the 
testimony  that  a  majority  of  those  who  give 
law  to  the  Mormon  Church  are  now,  and  have 
been  for  years,  living  in  open,  notorious  and 
shameless  polygamous  cohabitation."  Con- 
cerning President  Woodruff's  anti-polygamy 

279 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

manifesto  of  1890,  the  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee reported  that  "this  manifesto  in  no 
way  declares  the  principle  of  polygamy  to  be 
wrong  or  abrogates  it  as  a  doctrine  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  but  simply  suspends  the 
practice  of  polygamy  to  be  resumed  at  some 
more  convenient  season,  either  with  or  with- 
out another  revelation."  They  found  that 
Apostle  Smoot  was  responsible  for  the  conduct 
of  the  organization  to  which  he  belonged; 
that  he  had  countenanced  and  encouraged 
polygamy  "by  repeated  acts  and  in  a  number 
of  instances,  as  a  member  of  the  quorum  of 
the  twelve  apostles;"  and  that  he  was  "no 
more  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  Senate  than  he 
would  be  if  he  were  associating  in  polygamous 
cohabitation  with  a  plurality  of  wives." 

The  report  continued:  "The  First  Presi- 
dency and  the  twelve  apostles  exercise  a  con- 
trolling influence  over  the  action  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  in  secular  affairs  as  well  as 
in  spiritual  matters;"  and  "contrary  to  the 
principles  of  the  common  law  under  which 
we  live,  and  the  constitution  of  the  State  of 
Utah,  the  First  Presidency  and  twelve  apostles 
dominate  the  affairs  of  the  State  and  con- 
stantly interfere  in  the  performance  of  its 
functions.  .  .  .  But  it  is  in  political  affairs  that 
the  domination  of  the  First  Presidency  and 
the  twelve  apostles  is  most  efficacious  and 
most  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  State. 
.  .  .  Notwithstanding  the  plain  provision  of 

280 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  constitution  of  Utah,  the  proof  offered 
on  the  investigation  demonstrates  beyond 
the  possibility  of  doubt  that  the  hierarchy 
at  the  head  of  the  Mormon  Church  has,  for 
years  past,  formed  a  perfect  union  between 
the  Mormon  Church  and  the  State  of  Utah, 
and  that  the  Church,  through  its  head,  domi- 
nates the  affairs  of  the  State  in  things  both 
great  and  small."  And  the  report  concluded: 
"The  said  Reed  Smoot  comes  here,  not  as  the 
accredited  representative  of  the  State  of  Utah 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  but  as  the 
choice  of  the  hierarchy  which  controls  the 
Church  and  has  usurped  the  functions  of  the 
State  in  Utah.  It  follows,  as  a  necessary 
conclusion  from  these  facts,  that  Mr.  Smoot 
is  not  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  Senate  as  a 
Senator  from  the  State  of  Utah." 

On  the  same  day  a  minority  report  was 
presented  by  Senators  J.  B.  Foraker,  Albert 
J.  Beveridge,  Wm.  P.  Dillingham,  A.  J. 
Hopkins  and  P.  C.  Knox.  They  found  that 
Reed  Smoot  possessed  "  all  the  qualifications 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution  to  make  him 
eligible  to  a  seat  in  the  Senate;"  that  "the 
regularity  of  his  election"  by  the  Utah  legis- 
lature had  not  been  questioned;  that  his 
private  character  was  "irreproachable;"  and 
that  "so  far  as  mere  belief  and  membership 
in  the  Mormon  Church  are  concerned,  he  is 
fully  within  his  rights  and  privileges  under 
the  guaranty  of  religious  freedom  given  by  the 

281 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Constitution  of  the  United  States."  Having 
thus  summarily  excluded  all  the  large  and 
troublesome  points  of  the  investigation,  these 
Senators  decided  that  there  remained  "but 
two  grounds  on  which  the  right  or  title  of 
Reed  Smoot  to  his  seat  in  the  Senate"  was 
contested.  The  first  was  whether  he  had 
taken  a  certain  "endowment  oath"  by  which 
"he  obligated  himself  to  make  his  allegiance 
to  the  Church  paramount  to  his  allegiance 
to  the  United  States;"  and  the  second  was 
whether  "by  reason  of  his  official  relation 
to  the  Church  "  he  was  "  responsible  for  polyg- 
amous cohabitation"  among  the  Mormons. 
As  to  the  first  charge,  the  minority  found 
that  the  testimony  upon  the  point  was 
"limited  in  amount,  vague  and  indefinite  in 
character  and  utterly  unreliable,  because  of 
the  disreputable  character  of  the  witnesses  " — 
oddly  overlooking  the  fact  that  one  of  these 
witnesses  had  been  called  for  Apostle  Smoot ; 
that  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  impeach 
the  character  of  this  witness;  that  the  other 
witnesses  had  been  denounced,  by  a  Mormon 
bishop,  named  Daniel  Connolly,  as  "traitors 
who  had  broken  their  oaths  to  the  Church" 
by  betraying  the  secrets  of  the  "endowment 
oath;"  and  that  all  the  Smoot  witnesses  who 
denied  the  anti-patriotic  obligation  of  the 
oath  refused,  suspiciously  enough,  to  tell  what 
obligation  was  imposed  on  those  who  took 
part  in  the  ceremony. 

282 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

The  charge  that  Smoot,  as  an  apostle  of 
the  Church,  had  been  responsible  for  polyga- 
mous cohabitation  was  as  easily  disposed  of, 
by  the  minority  report.  He  had  himself, 
on  oath,  "positively  denied"  that  he  had 
"ever  advised  any  person  to  violate  the  law 
either  against  polygamy  or  against  polygamous 
cohabitation,"  and  no  witness  had  been 
produced  to  testify  that  Apostle  Smoot  had 
ever  given  "any  such  advice"  or  defended 
"such  acts."  True,  it  was  admitted  that  he 
had  "silently  acquiesced"  in  the  continuance 
of  polygamous  cohabitation  by  polygamists 
who  had  married  before  1890;  but  it  was 
contended  that  to  understand  this  acquies- 
cence it  was  "necessary  to  recall  some  his- 
torical facts,  among  which  are  some  that 
indicate  that  the  United  States  government 
is  not  free  from  responsibility  for  these  viola- 
tions of  the  law." 

In  short,  although  Reed  Smoot  was  one  of 
a  confessed  band  of  law-breaking  traitors, 
he  was  of  "irreproachable"  private  character. 
Although  the  band  had  been  guilty  of  every 
treachery,  none  of  the  band  had  admitted 
that  Smoot  had  encouraged  them  in  their 
villainies.  Smoot  had  only  "silently  ac- 
quiesced"— and  in  this  he  had  been  no 
guiltier  than  the  intimidated  bystanders  and 
the  gagged  victims  of  the  outrages.  Although 
the  gang  had  stolen  the  machinery  of  elections 
and  used  it  to  print  a  Senatorial  certificate 

283 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  Smoot,  there  was  nothing  to  show  that 
the  form  of  the  certificate  was  not  correct. 
Moreover,  the  band  operated  in  politics  as  a 
religious  organization,  and  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States  protects  a  man  in  his 
right  of  religious  freedom ' 


284 


CHAPTER  XIV 

TREASON  TRIUMPHANT 

While  these  disclosures  of  the  Smoot  in- 
vestigation were  shocking  the  sentiment  of 
the  whole  nation,  the  Prophets  carried  on  the 
conspiracy  of  their  defence  with  all  the  bold- 
ness of  defiant  guilt.     In  Salt  Lake  City,  the 
office  of  the  United  States  Marshal  and  even 
the   post-office  were  watched  for  the  arrival 
of    subpoenas  from  Washington;    men  were 
posted  in  the  streets  to  give  the  alarm  when- 
ever the  Marshal  should   attempt   to  serve 
papers;   and  before  he  entered  the  front  door 
of  a  Mormon's  house,  the  Church  sentry  had 
entered  by  the  back  door  to  warn  the  inmates. 
If  the  Federal  power  had  been  moving  in  a 
foreign  land,   it  could  not  have  been  more 
determinedly    opposed    by    local    authority. 
Notorious  polygamists,  wanted  as  witnesses 
before  the  Senate  committee,  made  a  public 
flight  through  Utah,  couriered,  flanked  and 
rear-guarded  by  the  power  of  the  hierarchy. 
One  of  these  law-breakers  (who,  it  was  known, 
had  been  subpoenaed)    went  from  Salt  Lake 
City  to  take  secret  employment  in  one  of  the 
Church's  sugar  factories  in  Idaho.     When  he 
was   discovered   there   and   served   with   the 
Senate    requisition,   he  gave  his  word   that 

285 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

he  would  appear  at  Washington,  and  then  he 
fled  with  his  new  polygamous  wife  to  a  polyga- 
mous Mormon  settlement  in  Alberta,  Canada 
— a  fugitive,  honored  because  he  was  a  fugi- 
tive, and  officially  sustained  as  a  ward  of  the 
Church. 

Apostles  John  W.  Taylor  and  Mathias  F. 
Cowley  left  the  country,  to  escape  a  summons 
to  Washington;  and  President  Smith  pleaded 
that  he  had  no  control  over  their  movements, 
and  promised  that  he  would,  if  possible,  bring 
them  back  to  comply  with  the  Senate  sub- 
poenas. He  knew,  as  every  Mormon  and 
every  well-informed  Gentile  knew,  that  the 
slightest  expression  of  a  wish  from  him  would 
be  the  word  of  God  to  those  two  men.  They 
would  have  gloried  in  going  to  Washington 
to  show  the  courage  of  their  fanaticism.  They 
would  never  have  left  the  country  without 
instructions  from  their  President.  But  they 
could  not  have  married  plural  wives  after 
the  manifesto,  and  solemnized  plural  marriages 
for  other  polygamists,  without  Smith's  knowl- 
edge and  consent;  their  testimony  would 
have  placed  the  responsibility  for  these  un- 
lawful practices  upon  the  Prophet;  and  the 
penalty  would  have  fallen  on  the  Prophet's 
Senator. 

They  not  only  fled,  but  they  allowed  them- 
selves in  their  absence  to  be  made  the  scape- 
goats of  the  hierarchy.  They  were  proven 
guilty  of  "new  polygamy"  before  the  Senate 

286 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

committee;  and,  for  the  sake  of  the  effect 
upon  the  country,  they  were  ostensibly  de- 
posed from  the  apostolate  by  order  of  the 
President,  who,  by  their  dismissal  from  the 
quorum,  advanced  his  son  Hyrum  in  seniority. 
But  their  apparent  degradation  involved  none 
of  the  consequences  that  Moses  Thatcher  had 
suffered.  They  continued  their  ministrations 
in  the  Church.  They  remained  high  in 
favor  with  the  hierarchy.  They  claimed 
and  received  from  the  faithful  the  right  to 
be  regarded  as  holily  "the  Lord's  anointed" 
as  they  had  ever  been.  They  still  held  their 
Melchisedec  priesthood.  One  of  them  after- 
ward took  a  new  plural  wife.  It  seems  to 
be  well  authenticated  that  the  other  continued 
to  perform  plural  marriages;  and  every 
Mormon  looked  upon  them  both — and  still 
looks  upon  them — as  zealous  priests  who 
endured  the  appearance  of  shame  in  order 
to  preserve  the  power  of  the  Prophet  in  gov- 
erning the  nation. 

Another  crucial  point  in  President  Smith's 
responsibility  was  his  solemnization  of  the 
plural  marriage  between  Apostle  Abraham  H. 
Cannon  and  Lillian  Hamlin,  of  which  I  have 
already  written.  One  of  the  women  of  the 
dead  apostle's  family  was  subpoenaed  to  give 
her  testimony  in  the  matter.  She  thrice 
telephoned  to  me  that  she  wished  to  consult 
me;  but  she  was  surrounded  by  such  a  system 
of  espionage  that  again  and  again  she  failed 

287 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  keep  her  appointment.  At  last,  late  at 
night,  she  arrived  at  my  office — the  editorial 
office  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune — having  es- 
caped, as  she  explained,  in  her  maid's  clothes. 
The  agents  of  the  hierarchy  had  been  subtly 
and  ingeniously  suggesting  to  her  that  she 
was  perhaps  mistaken  in  her  recollection  of 
the  facts  to  which  she  would  have  to  testify, 
and  she  was  distressed  with  the  doubt  and 
fear  which  they  had  instilled  into  her  mind. 
I  could  only  adjure  her  to  tell  the  truth  as 
she  remembered  it.  But  on  her  journey  to 
Washington  she  was  constantly  surrounded 
by  Church  "  advisers;"  and  the  effect  of  their 
"advice"  showed  in  the  testimony  that  she 
gave — a  testimony  that  failed  to  prove  the 
known  guilt  of  the  Prophet. 

For  the  Gentiles,  there  had  begun  a  sort 
of  "  reign  of  terror,"  which  can  be  best  summed 
up  by  an  account  of  a  private  conference  of 
twelve  prominent  non-Mormons  held  as  late 
as  1905.  That  conference  was  called  to  con- 
sider the  situation,  and  to  devise  means  of 
acquainting  the  nation  with  the  desperate 
state  of  affairs  in  Utah.  It  was  independent 
of  the  political  movement  that  had  already 
begun;  it  aimed  rather  to  organize  a  social 
rebellion,  so  that  we  might  not  be  dependent 
for  all  our  opposition  upon  the  annual  or 
semi-annual  campaigns  of  politics. 

The  meeting  first  agreed  upon  the  following 
statement  of  facts: 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

"Utah's  statehood,  as  now  admin- 
istered, is  but  a  protection  of  the 
Mormon  hierarchy  in  its  establishment 
of  a  theocratic  kingdom  under  the 
flag  of  the  republic.  This  hierarchy 
holds  itself  superior  to  the  Constitu- 
tion and  to  the  law.  It  is  spreading 
polygamy  throughout  the  ranks  of  its 
followers.  Through  its  agents,  it  domi- 
nates the  politics  of  the  state,  and  its 
power  is  spreading  to  other  common- 
wealths. It  exerts  such  sway  over 
the  officers  of  the  law  that  the  hierarchy 
and  its  favorites  cannot  be  reached  by 
the  hand  of  justice.  It  is  master  of 
the  State  Legislature  and  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. 

"By  means  of  its  immense  collection 
of  tithes  and  its  large  investments  in 
commercial  and  financial  enterprises, 
it  dominates  every  line  of  business  in 
Utah  except  mines  and  railroads;  and 
these  latter  it  influences  by  means  of 
its  control  over  Mormon  labor  and  by 
its  control  of  legislation  and  franchises. 
It  holds  nearly  every  Gentile  merchant 
and  professional  man  at  its  vengeance, 
by  its  influence  over  the  patronage 
which  he  must  have  in  order  to  be  suc- 
cessful. It  corrupts  every  Gentile 
who  is  affected  by  either  fear  or  venal- 
ity, and  makes  of  him  a  part  of  its 

289 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

power  to  play  the  autocrat  in  Utah 
and  to  deceive  the  country  as  to  its 
purposes  and  its  operations.  Every 
Gentile  who  refuses  to  testify  at  its 
request  and  in  its  behalf  becomes  a 
marked  and  endangered  man.  It  re- 
wards and  it  punishes  according  to  its 
will;  and  those  Gentiles  who  have 
gone  to  Washington  to  testify  for 
Smoot  are  well  aware  of  this  fact.  Un- 
less the  Gentiles  of  Utah  shall  soon  be 
protected  by  the  power  of  the  United 
States  they  will  suffer  either  ruin  or 
exile  at  the  hands  of  the  hierarchy." 

When  this  declaration  had  been  accepted, 
by  all  present,  as  truly  expressing  their  views 
of  the  situation,  it  was  decided  that  they 
should  confer  with  other  leading  Gentiles, 
hold  a  mass  meeting,  adopt  a  set  of  resolutions 
embodying  the  declaration  on  which  they 
had  agreed,  and  then  despatch  the  resolutions 
to  the  Senate  committee,  as  a  protest  against 
the  testimony  of  some  of  the  Gentiles  in  the 
Smoot  case,  and  as  an  appeal  to  the  nation 
for  help. 

But  although  all  approved  of  the  declaration 
and  all  approved  of  the  method  by  which  it 
was  to  be  sent  to  the  nation,  no  man  there 
dared  to  stand  out  publicly  in  support  of 
such  a  protest,  to  offer  the  resolutions,  or  to 
speak  for  them.  The  merchant  knew  that 

290 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

his  trade  would  vanish  in  a  night,  leaving 
him  unable  to  meet  his  obligations  and  cer- 
tain of  financial  destruction.  The  lawyer 
knew  not  only  that  the  hierarchy  would 
deprive  him  of  all  his  Mormon  clients,  but 
that  it  would  make  him  so  unpopular  with 
courts  and  juries  that  no  Gentile  litigant  would 
dare  employ  him.  The  mining  man  knew 
that  the  hierarchy  could  direct  legislation 
against  him,  might  possibly  influence  courts 
and  could  assuredly  influence  jurors  to  destroy 
him.  And  so  with  all  the  others  at  the 
conference. 

They  were  not  cowards.  They  had  shown 
themselves,  in  the  past,  of  more  than  average 
human  courage,  loyalty  and  ability.  All 
recognized  that  if  the  power  of  the  hierarchy 
were  not  soon  met  and  broken  it  would  grow 
too  great  to  be  resisted — that  another  gen- 
eration would  find  itself  hopelessly  enslaved. 
Every  father  felt  that  the  liberties  of  his 
children  were  at  stake;  that  they  would  be 
bond  or  free  by  the  issue  of  the  conflict  then 
in  course  at  Washington.  And  yet  not  one 
dared  to  throw  down  the  gauntlet  to  tyranny 
— to  devote  himself  to  certain  ruin.  They 
had  to  prefer  simple  slavery  to  beggary  and 
slavery  combined.  They  had  to  hope  silently 
that  the  power  of  the  nation  would  intervene. 
They  could  work  only  secretly  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  that  hope. 

At  first,  in  President  Roosevelt  they  saw 

291 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  promise  of  their  salvation.  He  had  op- 
posed the  election  of  Apostle  Smoot.  When 
the  report  of  the  apostle's  candidacy  had 
first  reached  Washington,  the  President  had 
summoned  to  the  White  House  Senator 
Thomas  Kearns  of  Utah  and  Senator  Mark 
Hanna,  who  was  chairman  of  the  National 
Republican  committee ;  and  to  these  two  men 
he  had  declared  his  opposition  to  the  candi- 
dacy of  a  Mormon  apostle  as  a  Republican 
aspirant  for  a  Senatorship.  At  his  request 
Senator  Hanna,  as  chairman  of  the  party, 
signed  a  letter  of  remonstrance  to  the  party 
chief sjin  Utah,  and  President  Roosevelt,  at 
a  later  conference,  gave  this  letter  to  Senator 
Kearns  to  be  communicated  to  the  state 
leaders.  Senator  Kearns  transmitted  the 
message,  and  by  so  doing  he  "dug  his  political 
grave"  as  the  Mormon  stake  president,  Lewis 
W.  Shurtliff,  expressed  it. 

Colonel  C.  E.  Loose  of  Provo  went  to  Wash- 
ington on  behalf  of  the  Church  authorities. 
He  was  a  Gentile,  a  partner  of  Apostle  Smoot 
and  of  some  of  the  other  Mormon  leaders  in 
business  undertakings,  a  wealthy  mining 
man,  a  prominent  Republican.  It  was  re- 
ported in  Utah  that  his  arguments  for  Smoot 
carried  some  weight  in  Washington.  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  was  to  be  a  candidate  for 
election ;  and  the  old  guard  of  the  Republican 
party,  distrustful  of  the  Roosevelt  progressive 
policies,  was  gathering  for  a  grim  stand  around 

292 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Senator  Mark  Hanna.  Both  factions  were 
playing  for  votes  in  the  approaching  national 
convention.  I  have  it  on  the  authority  of  a 
Mormon  ecclesiast,  who  was  in  the  political 
confidence  of  the  Church  leaders,  that  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt  was  promised  the  votes  of  the 
Utah  delegation  and  such  other  convention 
votes  as  the  Church  politicians  could  control. 
The  death  of  Senator  Hanna  made  this  prom- 
ise unnecessary,  if  there  ever  was  an  explicit 
promise.  But  this  much  is  certain.  Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's  opposition  to  Apostle  Smoot, 
for  whatever  reason,  changed  to  favor. 

The  character  and  impulses  of  the  President 
were  of  a  sort  to  make  him  peculiarly  sus- 
ceptible to  an  appeal  for  help  on  the  part  of 
the  Mormons.  He  had  lived  in  the  West. 
He  knew  something  of  the  hardships  attendant 
upon  conquering  the  waste  places.  He  sym- 
pathized with  those  who  dared,  for  their  own 
opinions,  to  oppose  the  opinions  of  the  rest 
of  the  world.  He  had  received  the  most 
adulating  assurances  of  support  for  his  can- 
didacies and  his  policies.  It  would  have 
required  a  man  of  the  calmest  discrimination 
and  coolest  judgment  to  find  the  line  between 
any  just  claim  for  mercy  presented  by  the 
Mormon  advocates  of  " religious  liberty"  and 
the  wilful  offences  which  they  were  commit- 
ting against  the  national  integrity. 

I  have  received  it  personally,  from  the  lips 
of  more  than  one  member  of  the  Senate  com- 

293 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

mittee,  that  never  in  all  their  experience  with 
public  questions  was  such  executive  pressure 
brought  to  bear  upon  them  as  was  urged  from 
the  White  House,  at  this  time,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  Apostle  Smoot's  seat  in  the  Senate. 
The  President's  most  intimate  friends  on 
the  committee  voted  with  the  minority  to 
seat  Smoot.  One  of  the  President's  closest 
adherents,  Senator  Dolliver,  after  having 
signed  a  majority  report  to  exclude  Smoot — 
and  having  been  re-elected,  in  the  meantime, 
by  his  own  State  legislature,  to  another  term 
in  the  Senate — afterwards  spoke  and  voted 
against  the  report  which  he  had  signed. 
Senator  A.  J.  Hopkins  of  Illinois,  who  had 
supported  Smoot  consistently,  found  himself 
bitterly  attacked,  in  his  campaign  for  re- 
election, because  of  his  record  in  the  Smoot 
case,  and  he  published  in  his  defence  a  letter 
from  President  Roosevelt  that  read:  "Just 
a  line  to  congratulate  you  upon  the  Smoot 
case.  It  is  not  my  business,  but  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  see  a  public  servant  show,  under  trying 
circumstances,  the  courage,  ability  and  sense 
of  right  that  you  have  shown." 

After  the  outrageous  exposures  of  the  vio- 
lations of  law,  the  treason  and  the  criminal 
indifference  to  human  rights  shown  by  the 
rulers  of  the  Church,  if  an  early  vote  had  been 
taken  by  the  committee  and  by  the  Senate 
itself,  the  antagonism  of  the  nation  would 
have  forced  the  exclusion  of  the  Apostle  from 

294 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  upper  House.  Delay  was  his  salvation. 
More  to  the  President's  influence  than  to  any 
other  cause  is  the  delay  attributable  that 
prolonged  the  case  through  a  term  of  three 
years.  During  that  time  the  unfortunate 
Gentiles  of  Utah  learned  that,  instead  of 
receiving  help  from  the  President,  they  were 
to  have  only  the  most  insuperable  opposition. 
They  believed  that  the  President  was  being 
grossly  misled;  that  it  was,  of  course,  im- 
possible for  him  to  read  all  the  testimony 
given  before  the  Senate  committee,  and  that 
the  matters  that  reached  him  were  being 
tinged  with  other  purpose  than  the  vindication 
of  truth  and  justice.  But  it  was  impossible 
to  obtain  the  opportunity  of  setting  him 
right.  Even  the  women  who  were  leading 
the  national  protest  against  the  polygamous 
teaching  and  practices  of  Smoot's  fellow 
apostles  were  told  that  the  President  had 
made  up  his  mind  and  could  not  be  re-con- 
vinced. 

The  Mormon  appeal  to  his  generosity  was 
not  confined  to  Washington.  On  his  travels 
he  met  President  Smith  more  than  once — 
the  Prophet  being  accompanied  by  a  different 
wife  each  time — and  naturally  Smith  made 
every  effort  to  impress  President  Roosevelt 
with  his  earnestness,  the  purity  of  his  life, 
and  the  high  motives  that  actuated  the  exer- 
cise of  his  authority.  And  at  this  sort  of 
pretence  the  Lord's  anointed  are  expert. 

295 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

They  themselves  may  be  crude  in  ideas  and 
coarse  in  method,  but  their  diplomacy  is  a 
growth  of  eighty  years  of  applied  devotion 
and  energy. 

The  American  people  are  used  to  meeting 
prominent  Mormons  who  are  models  of  de- 
meanor— who  are  hearty  of  manner;  who 
carry  a  kindly  light  in  their  eyes;  who  have 
a  spontaneity  that  precludes  hypocrisy  or 
even  deep  purpose.  These  are  not  the  men 
who  make  the  Church  diplomacy — they 
simply  obey  it.  It  is  part  of  that  diplomacy 
to  send  out  such  men  for  contact  with  the 
world.  But  the  ablest  minds  of  the  Church, 
whether  they  are  of  the  hierarchy  or  not, 
construct  its  policies.  And  given  a  system 
whose  human  units  move  instantly  and  un- 
questioningly  at  command;  given  a  system 
whose  worldly  power  is  available  at  any  point 
at  any  moment ;  given  a  system  whose  move- 
ment may  be  as  secret  as  the  grave  until 
result  is  attained — and  the  clumsiest  of 
politicians  or  the  crudest  of  diplomats  has  a 
force  to  effect  his  ends  that  is  as  powerful 
for  its  size  as  any  that  Christendom  has  ever 
known. 

Among  the  emissaries  of  the  Church  who 
were  deputed  to  "  reach  "  President  Roosevelt, 
was  our  old  friend  Ben  Rich,  the  gay,  the 
engaging,  the  apparently  irresponsible  agent 
of  hierarchical  diplomacy.  And  I  should 
like  to  relate  the  story  of  his  "approach,"  as 

296 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

it  is  still  related  in  the  inner  circle  of  Church 
confidences.  Not  that  I  expect  it  to  be  wholly 
credited — not  that  I  doubt  but  it  will  be 
denied  on  all  sides — but  because  it  is  so  char- 
acteristic of  Church  gossip  and  so  typical 
(even  if  it  were  untrue)  of  the  humorous 
cynicism  of  Church  diplomacy. 

When  President  Roosevelt  was  making 
his  " swing  around  the  circle,"  Rich  was 
appointed  to  join  him,  found  the  opportunity 
to  do  so,  and  (so  the  story  is  told)  delighted 
the  President  by  the  spirit  and  candor  of  his 
good-fellowship.  When  they  were  about  to 
part,  the  President  is  reported  to  have  said, 
"Why  don't  you  run  for  Congress  from  your 
state?  You're  just  the  kind  of  man  I'd  like 
to  have  in  the  House  to  support  my  policies." 
And  here  (as  the  Mormons  are  told)  is  the 
dialogue  that  ensued: 

Rich:  "  I  have  no  ambition  that  way, 
Mr.  President.  For  many  reasons  it's  out 
of  the  question — although  I'm  grateful  for 
the  flattering  suggestion." 

The  President:  "Then  let  me  appoint  you 
to  some  good  office.  You're  the  kind  of  man 
I'd  like  to  have  in  my  official  family." 

Rich  (impressively  and  in  a  low  tone) : 
"Mr.  President,  I'd  count  it  the  greatest 
honor  of  my  life  to  have  a  commission  from 
you  to  any  office.  I'd  hand  that  commission 
down  to  my  children  as  the  most  precious 
heritage.  But — I  love  you  too  much,  Mr. 

297 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

President,  to  put  you  in  any  such  hole.  I'm 
a  polygamist.  It  would  injure  you  before 
the  whole  country." 

The  President  (leaning  forward  eagerly) : 
"No!  Are  you  a  polygamist?  Tell  me  all 
about  it." 

Rich:  "  The  Lord  has  bestowed  that  blessing 
on  me.  I  wish  you  could  go  into  my  home 
and  see  how  my  wives  are  living  together 
like  sisters — how  tender  they  are  to  each  other 
—how  they  bear  each  other's  burdens  and 
share  each  other's  sorrows — and  how  fond 
all  my  children  are  of  Mother  and  Auntie." 

The  President:  "  Well — but  how  can  women 
agree  to  share  a  husband?" 

Rich:  "  They  do  it  in  obedience  to  a  revela- 
tion from  the  Lord — a  revelation  that  pro- 
claimed the  doctrine  of  the  eternity  and  the 
plurality  of  the  marriage  covenant.  We 
believe  that  men  and  women,  sealed  in  this 
life  under  proper  authority,  are  united  in  the 
conjugal  relation  throughout  eternity.  We 
believe  that  the  husband  is  tied  to  his  wives, 
and  they  to  him;  that  their  children  and  all 
the  generations  of  their  children  will  belong 
to  him  hereafter.  We  believe  in  eternal  pro- 
gression; that  as  man  is,  God  was;  and  as 
God  is,  man  shall  be.  We  believe  that  by 
obedience  to  this  revealed  covenant,  we  will 
be  exalted  in  the  celestial  realm  of  our  Father, 
with  power  in  ourselves  to  create  and  people 
worlds.  It  is  a  never  ending  and  constantly 

298 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

increasing  intelligence  and  labor.  If  I  keep 
my  covenants  to  my  wives  and  they  to  me, 
in  this  world,  all  the  powers  and  rights  of  our 
marriage  relation  will  be  continued  and  ampli- 
fied to  us  in  the  life  to  come;  and  we,  in  our 
turn,  will  be  rulers  over  worlds  and  universes 
of  worlds." 

Then — according  to  the  unctuous  gossip 
of  the  devout — President  Roosevelt  saw  the 
true  answer  to  his  own  desire  to  know  what 
was  to  become  of  his  mighty  personality  after 
this  world  should  have  fallen  away  from  him! 
He  saw,  in  this  faith,  a  possible  continuation 
throughout  eternity  of  the  tremendous  ener- 
gies of  his  being !  He  was  to  continue  to  rule 
not  merely  a  nation  but  a  world,  a  system  of 
worlds,  a  universe  of  worlds !  And  it  is  told — 
sometimes  solemnly,  sometimes  with  a  grin — 
that,  in  the  Temple  at  Salt  Lake,  a  proxy  has 
stood  for  him  and  he  has  been  baptized  into 
the  Mormon  Church ;  that  proxies  have  stood 
for  the  members  of  his  family  and  that  they 
have  been  sealed  to  him;  and  finally  that 
proxies  have  stood  for  some  of  the  great 
queens  of  the  past  (who  had  not  already  been 
sealed  to  Mormon  leaders)  and  that  they  have 
been  sealed  to  the  President  for  eternity!* 

This     may    sound     blasphemous     toward 


*It  is  a  not  uncommon  practice  in  the  Mormon  Church 
thus  to  "do  a  work"  for  a  Gentile  who  has  befriended  the 
people  or  otherwise  won  the  gratitude  of  the  Church  author- 
ities. 

299 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Theodore  Roosevelt — if  not  toward  the 
Almighty — but  it  is  told,  and  it  is  believed, 
by  hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  faithful 
among  the  Mormon  people.  It  is  given  to 
them  as  the  secret  explanation  of  President 
Roosevelt's  protection  of  the  Mormon  tyranny 
—a  protection  of  which  Apostle  Hyrum  Smith 
boasted  in  a  sermon  in  the  Salt  Lake  taber- 
nacle (April  5,  1905)  in  these  equivocal  words: 
"We  believe — and  I  want  to  say  this — that 
in  President  Roosevelt  we  have  a  friend,  and 
we  believe  that  in  the  Latter-day  Saints 
President  Roosevelt  has  the  greatest  friend- 
ship among  them;  and  there  are  no  people 
in  the  world  who  are  more  friendly  to  him, 
and  will  remain  friendly  unto  him  just  so 
long  as  he  remains  true,  as  he  has  been,  to 
the  cause  of  humanity." 

The  Smiths  have  their  own  idea  of  what 
"the  cause^of  humanity"  is. 


300 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  LIBERTY 

As  early  as  1903,  before  the  Smoot  investi- 
gation began,  the  Utah  State  Journal  (of 
which  I  became  editor)  was  founded  as  a 
Democratic  daily  newspaper,  to  attempt  a 
restoration  of  political  freedom  in  Utah  and 
to  remonstrate  against  the  new  polygamy, 
of  which  rumors  were  already  insistent.  I 
was  at  once  warned  by  Judge  Henry  H. 
Rolapp  (a  prominent  Democrat  on  the  Dis- 
trict bench,  and  secretary  of  the  Amalgamated 
Sugar  Company)  that  we  need  not  look  for 
aid  from  the  political  or  business  interests 
of  the  community,  inasmuch  as  our  avowed 
purpose  had  already  antagonized  the  Church. 
He  delivered  this  message  in  a  friendly  spirit 
from  a  number  of  Democrats  whose  support 
we  had  been  expecting.  And  the  warning 
proved  to  be  well-inspired.  Although  a 
number  of  courageous  Gentiles,  like  Colonel 
E.  A.  Wall  of  Salt  Lake  City,  gave  us  material 
aid — and  although  there  was  no  other  Demo- 
cratic daily  paper  in  Utah  (unless  it  was  the 
Salt  Lake  Herald,  owned  by  Senator  Clark 
of  Montana) — the  most  powerful  Church 
Democratic  interests  stood  against  us,  and 
we  found  it  impossible  to  make  any  effective 
headway  with  the  paper. 

301 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

After  the  Prophets  began  to  give  their 
awful  testimony  at  Washington,  the  Demo- 
cratic National  Convention  of  1904  (which 
I  attended  as  a  delegate  from  Utah)  con- 
sidered a  resolution  in  opposition  to  polygamy 
and  the  Church's  rule  of  the  state.  This 
resolution  was  as  vigorously  fought  by  some 
Utah  Gentiles  as  by  the  Mormon  delegates, 
on  the  grounds  that  it  would  defeat  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  Utah.  It  carried  in  the  con- 
vention. Upon  returning  to  Salt  Lake  City 
I  called  a  meeting  of  the  Democratic  state 
committee  (of  which  I  was  chairman)  and 
urged  that  we  make  our  state  campaign  on 
the  issue  of  ecclesiastical  domination,  in  con- 
sonance with  the  party's  national  platform. 
Of  the  whole  committee  only  the  secretary, 
Mr.  P.  J.  Daly,  supported  the  proposal.  The 
others  considered  it  "an  attempt  to  establish 
a  quarantine  against  Democratic  success." 
Some  of  them  had  been  promised  by  members 
of  the  hierarchy  that  the  party  was  to  have 
"a  square  deal  this  time."  Others  had  fatu- 
ously accepted  the  assurances  of  ecclesiasts 
that  "it  looked  like  a  Democratic  year."  In 
short,  the  Democratic  party  in  Utah,  like 
the  Republican  party,  proved  to  be  then,  as 
it  is  now,  less  a  political  organization  than  the 
tool  of  a  Church  cabal.  We  found  that  we 
could  no  more  hope  to  move  the  Democratic 
machine  against  the  hierarchy  than  to  move 
the  Smoot-Republican  machine  itself. 

302 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

But  when  Joseph  F.  Smith,  before  the 
Senate  committee,  admitted  that  he  was 
violating  "the  laws  of  God  and  man"  and 
tried  to  extenuate  his  guilt  with  the  plea  that 
the  Gentiles  of  Utah  condoned  it,  he  issued 
a  challenge  that  no  American  citizen  could 
ignore.  The  Gentiles  of  Utah  had  been  silent, 
theretofore,  partly  because  they  were  ignorant 
of  the  extent  of  the  polygamous  offences  of 
the  hierarchy,  and  partly  because  they  were 
hoping  for  better  things.  Smith's  boast 
made  their  silence  the  acquiescence  of  sym- 
pathy. A  meeting  was  called  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  in  May,  1904,  and  under  the  direction 
of  Colonel  William  Nelson,  editor  of  the  Salt 
Lake  Tribune,  the  principles  of  the  present 
"American  party"  were  enunciated  as  a 
protest  against  the  law-breaking  tyranny 
of  the  Church  leaders.  Later,  as  it  became 
clear  that  the  opponents  of  the  Smith  misrule 
must  organize  their  own  party  of  progress, 
committees  were  formed  and  a  convention 
was  held  (in  September,  1904)  at  which  a  full 
state  and  county  ticket  was  put  in  the  field, 
in  the  name  of  the  American  Party  of  Utah. 

We  agreed  that  no  war  should  be  made  on 
the  Mormon  religion  as  such;  that  no  war 
should  be  made  on  the  Mormon  people  be- 
cause of  their  being  Mormons ;  that  we  would 
draw  a  deadline  at  the  year  1890,  when  the 
Church  had  effected  a  composition  of  its 
differences  with  the  national  government, 

303 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  all  the  citizens  of  Utah,  Mormon  and 
Gentile  alike,  had  accepted  the  conditions 
of  settlement;  that  we  would  find  our  cause 
of  quarrel  in  the  hierarchy's  violation  of  the 
statehood  pledges;  and  that  when  we  had 
corrected  these  evil  practices  we  should  dis- 
solve, because  (to  quote  the  language  used 
at  the  time)  we  did  not  wish  "  to  raise  a  tyrant 
merely  to  slay  a  tyrant." 

In  the  idea  that  we  would  fight  upon  living 
issues — that  we  would  not  open  the  graves  of 
the  past  to  dig  up  a  dead  quarrel  and  parade 
it  in  its  cerements — the  American  party  move- 
ment began.  Its  first  enlistment  included 
practically  all  the  Gentiles  in  Salt  Lake  City 
who  resented  the  claim  of  the  Prophet  that 
they  acquiesced  in  his  crimes  and  his  treasons. 
But  the  most  promising  sign  for  the  party 
was  its  attraction  of  hundreds  of  independent 
Mormons  of  the  younger  generation.  As  one 
Mormon  of  that  hopeful  time  expressed  it: 
"The  flag  represents  the  political  power. 
The  golden  angel  Moroni,  at  the  top  of  the 
Temple,  represents  the  ecclesiastical  authority. 
I  will  not  pay  to  either  one  a  deference  which 
belongs  to  the  other.  I  know  how  to  keep 
them  apart  in  my  personal  devotion." 

This  was  exactly  what  the  Church  authori- 
ties would  not  permit.  It  would  have  de- 
stroyed all  the  special  and  selfish  prerogatives 
of  the  Mormon  hierarchs.  It  would  have 
subverted  their  claim  of  absolute  temporal 

304 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

power.  It  would  have  set  up  the  nation  and 
the  state  as  the  objects  of  civic  devotion — 
instead  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Although  we  of  the  American  party  dis- 
avowed and  abstained  from  any  attack  upon 
the  Mormon  Church  as  such — and  confined 
ourselves  to  a  war  upon  the  treasons,  the 
violations  of  law,  the  breaches  of  covenant 
and  the  other  offences  of  the  Church  leaders, 
as  the  practices  of  individuals — these  leaders 
dragged  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  as  a 
wall  of  defence  around  them,  and  in  countless 
sermons  and  printed  articles  declared  that 
the  Church  and  its  faith  were  the  objects  of 
our  assault.  In  other  words,  though  Smith 
claimed  in  Washington — and  Smoot  continues 
to  claim  before  the  nation — that  the  Church 
is  not  responsible  for  the  crimes  of  its  Prophets, 
whenever  a  criticism  or  a  prosecution  is 
directed  against  any  of  these  men,  they  all 
unite  in  declaring  that  the  Church  is  being 
persecuted ;  and  the  members  of  the  hierarchy 
rouse  all  their  followers,  and  use  all  their 
agencies,  in  a  successful  resistance. 

There  was  no  blithesomeness  in  the  cam- 
paign. It  was  not  lightened  by  any  humor. 
It  was  a  hopeless  assault  on  the  one  side  and 
a  grim  overpowering  resistance  on  the  other. 
The  American  party,  being  organized  as  a 
protest,  had  at  first  little  regard  for  offices. 
It  sought  to  promulgate  the  principles  of  its 
cause  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  citizens 

305 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  Utah  and  for  the  preservation  of  their 
rights.  Some  of  the  Gentiles  who  did  not 
join  us  felt,  perhaps,  as  strong  an  indignation 
as  those  who  did,  but  they  were  entangled 
in  politics  with  the  hierarchs,  or  had  business 
connections  that  would  be  destroyed.  These 
men,  in  course  of  time,  became  the  most 
dangerous  opponents  of  our  progress.  (The 
average  Mormon  is  obedient  and  supine 
enough  in  the  presence  of  his  Prophets,  but 
he  is  a  man  of  personal  independence  com- 
pared with  the  sycophantic  Gentile  who 
accepts  political  or  commercial  favors  from 
the  Church  chiefs  and  yet  continues  to  deny 
the  existence  of  the  very  power  to  which  he 
bends  the  knee.)  Of  the  rebellious  but  dis- 
creet Mormons  many  came  to  the  leaders  of 
our  party  to  say:  "  I  think  you're  quite  right. 
I,  myself,  have  suffered  under  these  tyrannies. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  new  polygamy. 
But,  as  you  know,  I'm  attorney  for  some  of 
the  Church  interests " — or  "I'm  in  business 
with  high  ecclesiasts "  — or  "I'm  heavily  in 
debt  to  the  Church  bank" — or  "I'm  closely 
connected  by  marriage  with  one  of  the 
Prophets" — "and  I  can  do  you  more  good 
by  my  quiet  efforts  than  by  coming  out  into 
the  open.  I'd  be  treated  as  an  apostate. 
All  my  influence  would  be  gone."  And  in 
most  cases  he  preserved  his  influence,  and  we 
lost  him.  The  Church  had  effective  ways 
of  recovering  his  support. 

^306 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

For  many  reasons  the  American  party 
looked  for  its  recruits  chiefly  among  Repub- 
licans, the  Democracy  being  almost  entirely 
Mormon.  And  in  the  first  flush  of  enthusiasm 
some  of  our  leaders  laughed  at  the  boast  of 
the  Republican  state  chairman  that,  for  every 
Republican  he  lost,  he  would  get  two  Mormon 
Democrats  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket. 
(This  was  Hon.  William  Spry,  a  Mormon, 
since  made  Governor  of  Utah,  for  services 
rendered  the  hierarchy.)  But  the  claim 
proved  anything  but  laughable.  He  got 
probably  four  Mormon  Democrats  for  every 
Republican  he  lost.  As  usual  the  hierarchy 
" delivered  the  goods"  to  the  national  organi- 
zation in  power. 

According  to  our  best  calculations  we  got 
from  fifteen  hundred  to  eighteen  hundred 
Mormon  votes.  And,  during  this  campaign 
and  those  that  followed,  I  was  approached  by 
hundreds  of  Mormons  who  commended  our 
work  and  gave  private  voice  to  the  hope  that 
we  might  succeed  in  freeing  Utah  so  that  they 
themselves  might  be  free.  After  I  joined 
the  staff  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune,  as  chief 
editor,  these  came  to  my  office  by  stealth 
and  in  obvious  fear.  I  could  not  blame  them 
then,  nor  do  I  now.  The  cost  of  open  defiance 
was  too  great. 

One  woman,  the  first  wife  of  a  prominent 
Mormon  physician,  came  to  me  to  enlist  in 
the  work  of  the  party.  (Her  husband  was 

307 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

living  with  a  young  plural  wife.)  We  ac- 
cepted her  aid.  Her  husband  cut  off  her 
monthly  allowance,  and  she  had  to  take  em- 
ployment as  a  book  canvasser,  so  that  she 
might  be  able  to  earn  her  living.  One  Mor- 
mon who  came  out  openly  for  us,  was  super- 
intendent of  a  business  owned  by  Gentiles. 
He  was  somewrhat  prominent  as  an  ecclesiast, 
and  he  was  a  Sunday  School  worker  in  his 
ward.  He  reconciled  his  wife  and  daughters 
to  his  revolt  against  the  recrudescence  of 
polygamy  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Church's 
political  control.  He  carried  with  him  the 
sympathy  of  his  brother,  who  was  a  news- 
paper editor.  He  won  over  some  of  his  per- 
sonal friends  to  pledge  their  support  to  our 
cause.  He  seemed  too  sturdy  ever  to  retreat, 
too  independent  in  his  circumstances  to  be 
driven,  and  with  too  clear  a  vision  to  be  led 
astray  by  the  threats,  the  power,  or  the  per- 
suasions of  the  hierarchy.  Yet,  before  long 
he  came  to  confess  that  he  could  not  continue 
to  help  us  openly.  His  employers — his  Gen- 
tile employers — had  notified  him  that  his 
work  in  the  American  party  would  be  danger- 
ously injurious  to  their  business.  They  were 
in  hearty  accord  with  his  views;  they  recog- 
nized his  right  as  a  citizen  to  act  according 
to  his  convictions;  but — they  dared  not  pro- 
voke a  war  of  business  reprisals  with  the 
commercial  and|financial  institutions  of  the 
Church.  He  must  either  cease  his  active 

308 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

opposition  to  the  Church  leaders,  or  lose  his 
place  of  employment.  ...  He  retired  from 
the  fight. 

Another  Mormon  who  joined  us  was  Don.  C. 
Musser,  a  son  of  one  of  the  Church  historians. 
He  had  been  a  missionary  in  Germany  and 
in  Palestine.  He  had  been  a  soldier  in  the 
Philippines,  and  he  had  edited  the  first  Ameri- 
can newspaper  there.  His  contact  with  the 
world  and  his  experience  in  the  military 
service  of  the  United  States  had  given  him  a 
high  ideal  of  his  country;  and  a  feeling  of 
loyalty  to  the  nation  had  superseded  his 
earlier  devotion  to  the  Prophets.  His  family 
was  wealthy,  but  he  was  supporting  himself 
and  his  young  wife  by  his  own  efforts  in 
business.  As  soon  as  he  came  out  openly 
with  the  American  party,  his  father's  home 
was  closed  against  him.  His  business  con- 
nections were  withdrawn  from  him.  He 
found  himself  unable  to  provide  for  his  wife, 
who  was  in  delicate  health.  After  a  losing 
struggle,  he  came  to  tell  us  that  he  could  no 
longer  earn  a  living  in  Utah ;  that  he  had  ob- 
tained means  to  emigrate;  that  he  must  say 
good-bye.  And  we  lost  him. 

Two  other  young  men — the  son  and  the 
son-in-law  of  an  apostle — came  to  me  and 
asked  helplessly  for  advice.  They  admitted 
that  the  practices  of  the  hierarchy  were,  to 
them,  a  violation  of  the  covenant  with  the 
nation,  a  transgression  of  the  revelation  from 

309 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

God  given  to  Wilford  Woodruff,  and  destruc- 
tive of  all  the  securities  of  community  asso- 
ciation. But  would  I  advise  them  to  sacrifice 
their  influence  in  the  Church  by  joining  the 
"American  movement"  publicly?  Or  had 
they  better  retain  their  influence  and  use  it 
within  the  Church  to  correct  the  evils  that 
we  were  attacking? 

With  awful  sincerity  they  spoke'of  condi- 
tions that  had  come  under  their  own  eyes, 
and  related  instances  to  show  how  mercilessly 
the  polygamous  favorites  of  the  Church  were 
permitted  to  prey  on  the  young  women 
teachers  in  Church  schools.  They  spoke  of 
J.  M.  Tanner,  who  was  at  that  time  head  of 
the  Church  schools,  a  member  of  the  general 
Board  of  Education,  and  one  of  the  Sunday 
School  superintendents.  According  to  these 
young  men — and  according  to  general  report — 
Tanner  was  marrying  right  and  left. 

I  knew  of  a  young  Mormon  of  Brigham 
City,  who  had  been  a  suitor  for  the  hand  of 

L ,  a  teacher  at  the  Logan  College.  He 

had  been  away  from  Utah  for  some  time,  and 
he  had  returned  hoping  to  make  her  his  wife. 
Stopping  over  night  in  Salt  Lake,  on  his  way 

home,  he  saw  Tanner  and  L enter  the 

lobby  of  the  hotel  in  which  he  sat.  They 
registered  as  man  and  wife  and  went  upstairs 
together.  He  followed — to  walk  the  floor  of 
his  room  all  night,  struggling  against  the 
impulse  to  break  in,  and  kill  Tanner,  and 

310 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

damn  his  own  soul  by  meddling  with 
the  man  who  had  been  ordained  by  the 
Prophets  to  a  wholesale  polygamous  pre- 
rogative. 

He  had  kept  his  hands  clean  of  blood,  but 
he  had  been  living  ever  since  with  murder 
in  his  heart.  Could  these  two  sons  of  the 
Church  do  more  to  remedy  such  horrors  by 
using  their  influence  to  have  Tanner  deposed, 
or  by  sacrificing  that  influence  in  an  open 
revolt  against  the  conditions  that  made 
Tanner  possible?  I  could  only  advise  them 
to  act  according  to  their  own  best  sense  of 
what  was  right.  They  did  use  their  influence 
to  help  force  Tanner's  deposition,  but  we  lost 
the  public  example  of  their  opposition  to  the 
crimes  of  the  hierarchy. 

I  relate  these  incidents  as  typical  of  the 
different  kinds  of  pressure  that  were  brought 
to  bear  upon  the  independent  Mormons  who 
wished  to  aid  us,  and  of  the  local  difficulties 
against  which  we  had  to  contend.  Wash- 
ington, of  course,  gave  us  no  recognition.  And 
we  did  not  succeed  in  reaching  the  ear  of  the 
nation.  Here  and  there  a  newspaper  noted 
our  effort  and  paid  some  small  heed  to  our 
protest,  but  the  overwhelming  success  of 
the  Republican  party — and  the  dumb-driven 
acquiescence  of  the  Democracy — in  Utah 
and  the  neighboring  Church-ruled  states, 
left  the  agitation  with  little  of  political  interest 
for  the  country  at  large. 

311 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

And  yet  the  struggle  went  on.  Animated 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune,  the 
leading  newspaper  of  the  community,  the 
American  party  entered  the  city  elections 
in  the  fall  of  1905  and  carried  them  against 
the  hierarchy's  Democratic  ticket,  with  the 
help  of  the  independent  Mormons,  under 
cover  of  the  secret  ballot.  Emboldened  by 
this  success  we  proposed  to  move  on  the  state 
and  county  offices,  with  the  hope  of  gaining 
some  members  of  the  legislature  and  some  of 
the  judicial  and  executive  offices,  through 
which  to  enforce  the  laws  that  the  Church 
leaders  were  defying.  But  here  we  failed. 
Outside  of  Salt  Lake  the  rule  of  the  Prophets 
was  still  absolute  and  unquestioned.  The 
people  bowed  reverently  to  Joseph  F.  Smith's 
dictum:  ''When  a  man  says  'You  may 
direct  me  spiritually  but  not  temporally,'  he 
lies  in  the  presence  of  God — that  is,  if  he  has 
got  intelligence  enough  to  know  what  he  is 
talking  about."  The  state  politicians  knew 
that  they  would  destroy  themselves  by  join- 
ing an  organization  opposed  by  the  all-power- 
ful Church;  and  sufficient  warning  of  this 
doom  appeared  to  them  in  the  fact  that  no 
member  of  the  American  party  could  obtain 
any  recognition  in  Federal  appointments. 
The  Church  had  meanwhile  dictated  the 
election  of  another  United  States  Senator 
(George  Sutherland)  to  join  Apostle  Smoot, 
and  Senator  Kearns  was  retired  for  his  opposi- 

312 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tion  to  the  hierarchy.*  It  began  to  be  more 
and  more  apparent  that  whatever  success 
we  might  achieve  locally,  the  power  of  the 
financial  and  political  allies  of  the  Prophets 
in  Washington,  aided  by  the  executive  "  Big 
Stick"  of  the  President,  would  beat  us  back 
from  any  attempt  to  rouse  the  state  or  the 
nation  to  our  support. 

Smoot  was  in  a  happy  position:  all  the 
senators  who  represented  the  "  Interests" 
were  for  him,  and  all  the  senators  who  repre- 
sented the  supposed  progressive  sentiment 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt  were  also  for  him. 
The  women  of  the  nation  had  sent  a  protest 
with  a  million  signatures  to  the  Senate;  but 
they  had  not  votes;  they  received,  in  reply, 
a  public  scolding.  Long  before  the  Senate 
voted  on  its  committee's  report,  many  of  the 
notorious  "new"  polygamists  of  the  Church 
returned  from  their  exile  in  foreign  missions 
and  began  to  walk  the  streets  of  Salt  Lake 
with  their  old  swagger  of  self-confident  author- 
ity. We  foresaw  the  end. 

Early  in  December,  1906,  Senator  J.  C. 
Burrows  of  Michigan,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee that  had  investigated  Smoot,  called 

*When  Senator  Aldrich  was  carrying  the  tariff  bill  of  1910 
through  the  Senate,  for  the  greater  profit  of  the  "Interests," 
Smoot  and  Sutherland  did  not  once  vote  against  him.  Smoot 
supported  him  on  every  one  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  votes  and  missed  none.  Sutherland  voted  with  him 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  times  and  was  recorded  as  not 
voting  on  the  remaining  twelve.  Only  two  other  senators 
made  anything  like  such  a  despicable  record. 

313 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

up  the  committee's  report  and  spoke  upon  it  in 
a  denunciation  of  Smoot.  Senator  Dubois 
of  Idaho  followed,  two  days  later,  with  a 
supplementary  attack,  and  censured  President 
Roosevelt  for  " allowing  his  name  and  office" 
to  be  used  in  defence  of  the  Mormons.  After 
an  interval  of  a  month,  Senator  Albert  J. 
Hopkins,  of  Illinois,  undertook  to  reply  with 
a  defence  of  Smoot  that  reduced  the  Apostle's 
excuses  to  the  absurd.  Smoot,  he  declared, 
had  opposed  polygamy  "even  from  his  in- 
fancy;" there  was  "nothing  in  the  constitu- 
tion" prohibiting  "a  State  from  having  an 
established  Church;"  the  old  practices  of 
Mormonism  were  dying  out;  and  Smoot,  as 
an  exponent  of  the  newTer  Mormonism,  was 
largely  responsible  for  the  improvement. 

This  bold  falsehood  wTas  received  with 
laughter  by  the  members  who  had  heard  the 
testimony  before  the  Senate  committee  or 
read  the  record  of  its  sittings ;  but  it  was  wired 
to  all  newspapers;  and  the  contradictions 
that  followed  it  failed  (for  reasons)  to  get 
the  same  publicity.  It  was  repeated  by 
Senator  Sutherland  (January  22,  1907) ;  and 
he  had  the  audacity  to  add  that  the  Mormon 
Church,  as  well  as  Smoot,  was  opposed  to 
polygamy;  that  the  "sporadic  cases"  of  new 
polygamy  were  "  reprehended  by  Mormon  and 
Gentile  alike;"  that  polygamous  marriages 
in  Utah  had  been  forbidden  by  the  Enabling 
Act,  but  that  polygamous  cohabitation  had 

314 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

been  left  to  the  state;  and  that  the  latter 
was  rapidly  dying  out.  And  Sutherland 
knew,  as  every  public  man  in  Utah  knew, 
that  almost  every  word  of  this  statement  was 
untrue. 

Senator  Philander  C.  Knox,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (February  14,  1907)  took  up  the  lie 
that  Smoot  had  been  "  from  his  youth  against 
polygamy,"  and  he  added  to  it  a  legal  argu- 
ment that  the  Senate  could  only  expel  a 
member,  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  if  he  were 
guilty  of  crime,  offensive  immorality,  dis- 
loyalty or  gross  impropriety  during  his  term 
of  service.  Senator  Tillman  (February  15) 
accused  President  Roosevelt  of  protecting 
Smoot  in  return  for  a  pledge  of  Mormon  sup- 
port given  previous  to  the  last  campaign. 
Apostle  Smoot  (February  19)  declared  that 
cases  of  "new"  polygamy  were  rare;  that 
they  were  not  sanctioned  by  the  Church ;  that 
every  case  since  1890  "has  the  express  con- 
demnation of  the  Church;"  and  that  he  him- 
self had  always  opposed  polygamy.  On 
February  20,  the  question  was  forced  to  a 
vote  after  a  debate  that  repeated  these  false- 
hoods, in  spite  of  all  disproofs  of  them.  And 
Apostle  Smoot  was  retained  in  his  seat  by 
a  vote  of  fifty- one  to  thirty-seven,  counting 
pairs. 

After  this  event,  no  growth  of  organization 
was  immediately  possible  to  the  American 
party.  Having  gained  political  control  of 

315 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Salt  Lake  City  and  given  it  good  municipal 
government,  we  were  able  to  hold  a  local  ad- 
herency;  but  hundreds  of  Mormons,  who  still 
vote  the  American  city  ticket,  vote  for  the 
Church  in  state  elections,  because,  though  they 
want  reform,  they  are  not  willing  to  risk  the 
punishment  of  their  relatives  and  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  to  attain  that  reform.  And  when 
the  national  government  granted  its  patent 
of  approval  to  the  hierarchy — by  holding 
the  hierarchy's  appointed  representative  in 
the  Senate  as  its  prophetic  monitor — nearly 
all  the  people  of  the  intermountain  country 
lost  heart  in  the  fight.  Thousands  of  Gen- 
tiles, who  knew  the  truth  and  had  fought  for 
it  for  years,  argued  despairingly:  "If  the 
nation  likes  this  sort  of  thing — I  guess  it's 
the  sort  of  thing  it  likes.  I'm  not  going  to 
ruin  myself  financially  and  politically  by 
keeping  up  a  losing  struggle  with  these  neigh- 
bors of  mine,  and  fight  the  government  at 
Washington  besides.  If  the  administration 
wants  to  be  bossed  by  the  Prophet,  Seer  and 
Revelator,  /  can  stand  it." 

The  nation,  having  accepted  responsibility 
for  past  polygamy,  now,  by  accepting  Senator 
Smoot,  gave  its  responsible  approval  to  the 
new  polygamy  and  to  the  commercial  and 
political  tyrannies  of  the  Church.  In  the 
old  days  the  Mormons  had  claimed  immunity 
for  their  practice  of  polygamy  on  the  ground 
that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States 

316 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

protected  them  in  the  exercises  of  their  faith. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  the  country  determined 
that  the  free-religion  clause  of  the  constitu- 
tion did  not  cover  violations  of  law;  and  the 
Church  deliberately  abandoned  its  claim  of 
religious  immunity.  But  now  a  majority 
of  the  Senate,  supported  by  President  Roose- 
velt, took  the  old  ground — which  the  Supreme 
Court  had  made  untenable  and  the  Mormons 
themselves  had  vacated  —  and  practically 
declared  that  violations  of  law  were  a  part 
of  the  constitutional  guaranty! 


317 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  PRICE  OF  PROTEST 

The  members  of  the  Mormon  hierarchy 
continually  boast  that  they  are  sustained 
in  their  power — and  in  their  abuses  of  that 
power — "by  the  free  vote  of  the  freest  people 
under  the  sun/'  By  an  amazing  self  decep- 
tion the  Mormon  people  assume  that  their 
government  is  one  of  "common  consent;" 
and  nothing  angers  them  more  than  the 
expression  of  any  suspicion  that  they  are  not 
the  freest  community  in  the  world.  They 
live  under  an  absolutism.  They  have  no 
more  right  of  judgment  than  a  dead  body. 
Yet  the  diffusion  of  authority  is  so  clever 
that  nearly  every  man  seems  to  share  in  its 
operation  upon  some  subordinate,  and  feels 
himself  in  some  degree  a  master  without  ob- 
serving that  he  is  also  a  slave. 

The  male  members  of  the  ward — who  would 
be  called  "laymen"  in  any  other  Church — 
all  hold  the  priesthood.  Each  is  in  possession 
of,  or  on  the  road  to,  some  priestly  office; 
and  yet  all  are  under  the  absolutism  of  the 
bishop  of  the  ward.  Of  the  hundreds  of 
bishops,  with  their  councillors,  each  seems 

318 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  be  exercising  some  independent  authority, 
but  all  are  obedient  to  the  presidents  of 
stakes.  The  presidents  apparently  direct 
the  ecclesiastical  destinies  of  their  districts, 
but  they  are,  in  fact,  supine  and  servile  under 
the  commands  of  the  apostles;  and  these, 
in  turn,  render  implicit  obedience  to  the 
Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator.  No  policy 
ever  arises  from  the  people.  All  direction, 
all  command,  comes  from  the  man  at  the 
top.  It  is  not  a  government  by  common 
consent,  but  a  government  of  common  con- 
sent— of  universal,  absolute  and  unquestion- 
ing obedience — under  penalty  of  eternal  con- 
demnation threatened  and  earthly  punish- 
ment sure. 

Twice  a  year,  with  a  fine  show  of  democracy, 
the  people  assemble  in  the  Tabernacle  at 
Salt  Lake,  and  there  vote  for  the  general 
authorities  who  are  presented  to  them  by  the 
voice  of  revelation.  If  there  were  no  tragedy, 
there  would  be  farce  in  the  solemnity  with 
which  this  pretence  of  free  government  is 
staged  and  managed.  Some  ecclesiast  rises 
in  the  pulpit  and  reads  from  his  list:  "It  is 
moved  and  seconded  that  we  sustain  Joseph 
F.  Smith  as  Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator  to 
all  the  world.  All  who  favor  this  make  it 
manifest  by  raising  the  right  hand."  No 
motion  has  been  made.  No  second  has  been 
offered.  Very  often,  no  adverse  vote  is  asked. 
And,  if  it  were,  who  would  dare  to  offer  it? 

319 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

These  leaders  represent  the  power  of  God  to 
their  people;  and  against  them  is  arrayed 
"the  power  of  the  Devil  and  his  cohorts 
among  mankind."  Three  generations  of 
tutelage  and  suppression  restrain  the  members 
of  the  conference  in  a  silent  acquiescence. 
If  there  is  any  rebel  among  them,  he  must 
stand  alone;  for  he  has  scarcely  dared  to 
voice  his  objections,  lest  he  be  betrayed,  and 
any  attempt  to  raise  a  concerted  revolt  would 
have  been  frustrated  before  this  opportunity 
of  concerted  revolt  presented  itself.  Being 
a  member  of  the  Church,  he  must  combat 
the  fear  that  he  may  condemn  himself  eter- 
nally if  he  raise  his  voice  against  the  will  of 
God.  He  must  face  the  penalty  of  becoming 
an  outcast  or  an  exile  from  the  people  and 
the  life  that  he  has  loved.  He  knows  that 
the  religious  zealots  will  feel  that  he  has 
gone  wilfully  "into  outer  darkness"  through 
some  deep  and  secret  sin  of  his  own ;  and  that 
the  prudent  members  of  the  community  will 
tell  him  that  he  should  have  "kept  his  mouth 
shut."  If  there  were  a  majority  of  the  con- 
ference inclined  to  protest  against  the  re- 
election of  any  of  its  rulers,  the  lack  of  com- 
munication, the  pressure  of  training  and  the 
weight  of  fear  would  keep  them  silent.  And 
in  this  manner,  from  Prophet  down  to  "Choyer 
leader"  (choir  leader)  the  names  are  offered 
and  "  sustained  by  the  free  vote  of  the  freest 
people  under  the  sun." 

320 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

During  the  days  just  before  the  American 
party's  political  agitation,  a  young  Mormon, 
named  Samuel  Russell,  returned  from  a 
foreign  mission  for  the  Church  and  found  that 
the  girl  whom  he  had  been  courting  when  he 
went  away  was  married  as  a  plural  wife  to 
Henry  S.  Tanner,  brother  of  the  other  notori- 
ous polygamist,  J.  M.  Tanner.  The  discovery 
that  his  sweetheart  was  a  member  of  the 
Tanner  household  drove  Russell  almost  fran- 
tic. She  was  the  daughter  of  an  eminent 
and  wealthy  family,  of  remarkable  beauty, 
well-educated  and  rarely  accomplished. 
Young  Russell  was  a  college  student — a  youth 
of  intellect  and  high  mind — and  he  suffered 
all  the  torments  of  a  horrifying  shock.  Unless 
he  should  choose  to  commit  an  act  of  violence 
there  was  only  one  possible  way  for  him  to 
protest.  At  the  next  conference,  when  the 
name  of  Henry  S.  Tanner  was  read  from  the 
list  to  be  "sustained" — as  a  member  of  the 
general  Sunday  School  Board — Russell  rose 
and  objected  that  Tanner  was  unworthy  and  a 
' '  new' '  polygamist .  He  was  silenced  by  remon- 
strances from  the  pulpit  and  from  the  people. 
He  was  told  to  take  his  complaint  to  the 
President  of  his  Stake.  He  was  denied  the  op- 
portunity to  present  it  to  the  assemblage. 

Almost  immediately  afterward,  Tanner, 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  was  honored  with 
a  seat  in  the  highest  pulpit  of  the  Church 
among  the  general  authorities.  And  Russell 

321 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

was  pursued  by  the  ridicule  of  the  Mormon 
community,  the  persecution  of  the  Church 
that  he  had  served,  the  contempt  of  the  man 
who  had  wronged  him,  and  the  anger  of  the 
woman  whom  he  had  loved.  One  of  the 
reporters  of  the  Deseret  News,  the  Church's 
newspaper,  subsequently  stated  that  he  had 
been  detailed,  with  others,  to  pursue  Russell 
day  and  night,  soliciting  interviews,  plaguing 
him  with  questions,  and  demanding  the  legal 
proofs  of  Tanner's  marriage — which,  of  course, 
it  was  known  that  Russell  could  not  give — 
until  Russell's  friends,  fearing  that  he  might 
be  driven  to  violence,  persuaded  him  to  leave 
the  state.  Tanner  is  now  reputed  to  have 
six  plural  wives  (all  married  to  him  since  the 
manifesto  of  1890)  of  whom  this  young 
woman  is  one. 

Similarly,  at  the  General  Conference  of 
April,  1905,  Don  C.  Musser  (of  whom  I  have 
already  written)  attempted  to  protest  against 
the  sustaining  of  Apostles  Taylor  and  Cowley; 
but  Joseph  F.  Smith  promptly  called  upon 
the  choir  to  sing,  and  Musser 's  voice  was 
drowned  in  harmony.  In  more  recent  years 
Charles  J.  Bo  wen  rose  at  a  General  Confer- 
ence to  object  to  the  sustaining  of  some  of  the 
polygamous  authorities,  and  he  was  hustled 
from  the  building  by  the  ushers. 

But  the  most  notable  case  of  individual 
revolt  of  this  period  was  Charles  A.  Smurth- 
waite's.  He  had  joined  the  Church,  alone, 

322 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

when  a  boy  in  England,  and  the  sufferings 
he  had  endured,  for  allying  himself  with  an 
ostracized  sect,  had  made  him  a  very  ardent 
Mormon.  He  had  become  a  "teacher"  in 
his  ward  of  Ogden  City,  had  succeeded  in 
business  as  a  commission  merchant  and  was 
a  great  favorite  with  his  bishop  and  his 
people,  because  of  his  charities  and  a  certain 
gentle  tolerance  of  disposition  and  kindly 
brightness  of  mind. 

Smurthwaite,  in  partnership  with  Richard 
J.  Taylor  (son  of  a  former  President  of  the 
Church,  John  Taylor)  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facture of  salt,  with  the  financial  backing  of  a 
leading  Church  banker.  Along  the  shores 
of  Salt  Lake,  salt  is  obtained,  by  evaporation, 
at  the  cost  of  about  sixty  cents  a  ton;  its 
selling  price,  at  the  neighboring  smelting 
centers,  ranges  from  three  dollars  to  fourteen 
dollars  a  ton;  and  the  industry  has  always 
been  one  of  the  most  profitable  in  the  com- 
munity. In  the  early  days,  the  Church  (as 
I  have  already  related)  encouraged  the  estab- 
lishment of  "salt  gardens,"  financed  the 
companies,  protected  them  in  their  leasehold 
rights  along  the  lake  shores,  and  finally, 
through  the  Inland  Crystal  Salt  Company, 
came  to  control  a  practical  monopoly  of  the 
salt  industry  of  the  intermountain  country. 
(This  Inland  Crystal  Company,  with  Joseph 
F.  Smith  as  its  president,  is  now  a  part  of 
the  national  salt  trust.) 

323 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

After  Smurthwaite  and  Taylor  had  in- 
vested heavily  in  the  land  and  plant  of  their 
salt  factory,  the  Church  banker  who  had 
been  helping  them  notified  them  that  they 
had  better  see  President  Smith  before  they 
went  any  further.  They  called  on  Smith 
in  his  office,  and  there — according  to  Smurth- 
waite's  sworn  testimony  before  the  Senate 
committee — the  Prophet  gave  them  notice 
that  they  must  not  compete  with  his  Inland 
Crystal  Salt  Company  by  manufacturing  salt, 
and  that  if  they  tried  to,  he  would  "ruin" 
them.  This  proceeding  convinced  Smurth- 
waite that  Smith  had  "so  violent  a  disregard 
and  non-understanding  of  the  rights  of  his 
fellow-man  and  his  duty  to  God,  as  to  render 
him  morally  unqualified  for  the  high  office 
which  he  holds."  For  expressing  such  an 
opinion  of  Smith  to  elders  and  teachers — 
and  adding  that  Smith  was  not  fit  to  act  as 
Prophet,  Seer  and  Revelator,  since,  according 
to  his  own  confession  to  the  Senate  Committee, 
he  was  "living  in  sin" — for  expressing  these 
opinions,  charges  were  preferred  against 
Smurthwaite  by  an  elder  named  Goddard  of 
Ogden  City,  and  excommunication  proceedings 
were  begun  against  him. 

Smurthwaite  replied  by  making  a  charge 
of  polygamous  cohabitation  against  Goddard ; 
and  after  the  April  Conference  of  1905,  Don 
Musser  and  Smurthwaite  joined  in  filing  a 
complaint  in  the  District  Court  of  Salt  Lake 

324 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

City  demanding  an  accounting  from  Joseph 
F.  Smith  of  the  tithes  which  the  Church  was 
collecting.  Meanwhile  Smurthwaite  had  been 
"  disfellowshipped  "  at  a  secret  session  of  the 
bishop's  court,  on  March  22,  without  an  op- 
portunity of  appearing  in  his  own  defence 
or  having  counsel  or  witnesses  heard  in  sup- 
port of  his  case;  and  on  April  4,  after  a  simi- 
larly secret  and  ex-parte  proceeding,  he  was 
excommunicated  by  the  High  Council  of  his 
Stake,  for  "apostasy  and  un-Christianlike 
conduct."  His  charges  against  Goddard  were 
ignored,  and  his  suit  for  an  accounting  of 
the  tithes  was  dismissed  for  want  of  juris- 
diction! 

From  the  moment  of  his  first  public  protest 
against  Smith,  all  Smurthwaite's  former  asso- 
ciates fell  away  from  him,  and  by  many  of 
the  more  devout  he  was  shunned  as  if  he  were 
infected.  Benevolent  as  he  had  been,  he 
could  find  no  further  fellowship  even  among 
those  whom  he  had  benefited  by  his  service 
and  his  means.  I  know  of  no  more  blameless 
life  than  his  had  been  in  his  home  community 
— and,  to  this,  every  one  of  his  acquaintances 
can  bear  testimony — yet  after  the  brutally 
unjust  proceedings  of  excommunication 
against  him  the  Deseret  News,  the  Church's 
daily  paper,  referred  to  "recent  cases  of 
apostasy  and  excommunication"  as  having 
been  made  necessary  by  the  "gross  immor- 
ality" of  the  victims.  When  a  man  like 

325 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Chas.  A.  Smurthwaite  could  not  remonstrate 
against  the  individual  offences  of  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  without  being  overwhelmed  by  finan- 
cial disaster,  and  social  ostracism,  and  per- 
sonal slander,  it  must  be  evident  how  im- 
possible is  such  single  revolt  to  the  average 
Mormon.  Nothing  can  be  accomplished  by 
individual  protest  except  the  ruin  of  the 
protest  ant  and  his  family. 

In  the  case  of  my  own  excommunication, 
the  issues  were  perhaps  less  clearly  defined 
than  in  Smurthwaite 's.  I  had  not  been  for 
many  years  a  formal  member  of  the  Church; 
and  yet  in  the  sense  that  Mormonism  is  a 
community  system  (as  much  as  a  religion) 
I  had  been  an  active  and  loyal  member  of  it. 
In  my  childhood — when  I  was  seven  or  eight 
years  of  age — I  began  to  doubt  the  faith  of 
my  people ;  and  I  used  to  go  into  the  orchard 
alone  and  thrust  sticks  lightly  into  the  soft 
mould  and  pray  that  God  would  let  them  fall 
over  if  the  Prophets  had  not  been  appointed 
by  Him  to  do  His  work.  And  sometimes  they 
fell  and  sometimes  they  stood!  Later,  when 
I  was  appalled  by  some  of  the  things  that  had 
occurred  in  the  early  history  of  the  Church, 
I  silenced  myself  with  the  argument  that  one 
should  not  judge  any  religion  by  the  crudities 
and  intolerances  of  its  past.  I  felt  that  if 
I  were  not  hypocritical — if  I  were  myself 
guided  by  the  truth  as  I  saw  it  myself — and 
if  I  aided  to  the  utmost  of  my  power  in  ad- 

326 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

vancing  the  community  out  of  its  errors,  I 
should  be  doing  all  that  could  be  asked  of  me. 
In  the  days  of  Mormon  misery  and  proscrip- 
tion, I  chose  to  stand  with  my  own  people, 
suffering  in  their  sufferings  and  rejoicing  with 
them  in  their  triumphs.  Their  tendency  was 
plainly  upward;  and  I  felt  that  no  matter 
what  had  been  the  origin  of  the  Church — 
whether  in  the  egotism  of  a  man  or  in  an 
alleged  revelation  from  God — if  the  tendencies 
were  toward  higher  things,  toward  a  more 
even  justice  among  men,  toward  a  more 
zealous  patriotism  for  the  country,  no  man 
of  the  community  could  do  better  than  abide 
with  the  community. 

The  Church  authorities  accepted  my  aid 
with  that  understanding  of  my  position  toward 
the  Mormon  religion;  and,  though  Joseph  F. 
Smith,  in  1892,  for  his  own  political  purposes, 
circulated  a  procured  statement  that  I  was 
"a  Mormon  in  good  standing,"  later,  when 
he  was  on  the  witness  stand  in  the  Smoot 
investigation,  he  testified  concerning  me: 
"He  is  not  and  never  has  been  an  official 
member  of  the  Church,  in  any  sense  or  form." 
I  made  no  pretenses  and  none  were  asked  of 
me.  I  was  glad  to  give  my  services  to  a  people 
whom  I  loved,  and  trusted,  and  admired; 
and  the  leaders  were  as  eager  to  use  me  as 
I  was  eager  to  be  used  in  the  proper  service 
of  my  fellows.  (Even  Joseph  F.  Smith,  in 
those  days,  was  glad  to  give  me  his  "power 

327 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  attorney  "  and  to  trust  me  with  the  care  of 
the  community's  financial  affairs.)  But  when 
all  the  hierarchy's  covenants  to  the  nation 
were  being  broken;  when  the  tyranny  of  the 
Prophet's  absolutism  had  been  re-established 
with  a  fierceness  that  I  had  never  seen  even  in 
the  days  of  Brigham  Young;  when  polygamy 
had  been  restored  in  its  most  offensive  aspect, 
as  a  breach  of  the  Church's  own  revelation; 
when  hopelessly  outlawed  children  were  being 
born  of  cohabitation  that  was  clandestine  and 
criminal  under  the  "laws  both  of  God  and  of 
man" — it  was  impossible  for  me  to  be  silent 
either  before  the  leaders  of  the  Church  or  in  the 
public  places  among  the  people.  I  had  spoken 
for  the  Mormons  at  a  time  when  few  spoke  for 
them — when  many  of  the  men  who  were  now  so 
valiantly  loyal  to  the  hierarchy  had  been  dis- 
creetly silent.  I  had  helped  defend  the  Mor- 
mon religion  when  it  had  few  defenders.  I  did 
not  propose  to  criticize  it  now;  for  to  me,  any 
sincere  belief  of  the  human  soul  is  too  sacred 
to  be  so  assailed — if  not  out  of  respect,  surely 
in  pity — and  the  Mormon  faith  was  the  faith 
of  my  parents.  But  I  was  determined  to 
make  the  strongest  assault  in  my  power  on 
the  treason  and  the  tyranny  which  Smith 
and  his  associates  in  guilt  were  trying  to 
cover  with  the  sanctities  of  religion;  and  I  had 
to  make  that  assault,  as  a  public  man,  for 
a  public  purpose,  without  any  consideration 
of  private  consequences. 

328 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

After  I  began  criticizing  the  Church  leaders, 
in  the  editorial  columns  of  the  Salt  Lake 
Tribune,  my  friend  Ben  Rich,  then  president 
of  the  Southern  States  Missions,  and  J.  Golden 
Kimball,  one  of  the  seven  presidents  of  the 
seventies,  came  to  me  repeatedly  to  suggest 
that  if  I  wished  to  attack  the  leaders  of  the 
Church  I  should  formally  withdraw  from  the 
Church.  This  I  declined  to  do:  because  I 
was  in  no  different  position  toward  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Church  than  I  had  been  in  previous 
years — because  I  was  not  criticizing  the 
Church  or  its  religious  teachings,  but  attack- 
ing the  civil  offences  of  its  leaders  as  citizens 
guilty  against  the  state — and  because  I  saw 
that  my  attack  had  more  power  as  coming 
from  a  man  who  stood  within  the  community, 
even  though  he  had  no  standing  in  the  Church. 
I  continued  as  I  had  begun.  After  the  publi- 
cation of  an  editorial  (January  22,  1905),  in 
which  I  charged  President  Smith  with  being 
all  that  the  testimony  then  before  the  Senate 
committee  had  proven  him  to  be,  Ben  Rich 
advised  me  that  I  must  either  withdraw  from 
the  Church  or  Smith  would  proceed  against 
me  in  the  Church  tribunals  and  make  my 
family  suffer.  I  replied  that  I  would  not  with- 
draw and  that  I  would  fight  all  cases  against 
me  on  the  issue  of  free  speech.  On  February 
1,  1905,  I  published,  editorially,  "  An  address 
to  the  Earthly  King  of  the  Kingdom  of  God," 
in  which  I  charged  Smith  with  having  violated 

329 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  laws  (revelations)  of  his  predecessors; 
with  having  made  and  violated  treaties  upon 
which  the  safety  of  his  "subjects"  depended; 
with  having  taken  the  bodies  of  the  daughters 
of  his  subjects  and  bestowed  them  upon  his 
favorites;  with  having  impoverished  his  sub- 
jects by  a  system  of  elaborate  exactions 
(tithes)  in  order  to  enrich  "the  crown"- 
and  so  forth.  All  of  which,  burlesquely 
written  as  if  to  a  Czar  by  a  constitutionalist, 
was  accepted  by  the  Mormon  people  as  in  no 
way  absurd  in  its  tone  as  coming  from  one 
American  citizen  to  another! 

Because  of  these  two  editorials  I  was 
charged  (February  21,  1905)  before  a  ward 
bishop's  court  in  Ogden  with  "  unchristianlike 
conduct  and  apostasy,"  after  two  minor 
Church  officials  had  called  upon  me  at  my 
home  and  received  my  acknowledgment  of 
the  authorship  of  the  editorials,  my  refusal 
to  retract  them,  and  my  statement  that  I  did 
not  "sustain"  Joseph  F.  Smith  as  head  of  the 
Church,  since  he  was  "leaving  the  worship 
of  God  for  the  worship  of  Mammon  and  leading 
the  people  astray."  On  the  night  of  February 
24,  I  appeared  in  my  own  defence  before  the 
bishop's  court,  at  the  hour  appointed,  without 
witnesses  or  counsel,  because  I  had  been 
notified  that  no  one  would  be  permitted  to 
attend  with  me.  And,  of  course,  the  defence 
I  made  was  that  the  articles  were  true  and 
that  I  was  prepared  to  prove  them  true. 

330 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Such  a  court  usually  consists  of  a  bishop 
and  his  two  councillors,  but  in  this  case  the 
place  of  the  second  councillor  had  been  taken 
by  a  high  priest  named  Elder  George  W. 
Larkin,  a  man  reputed  to  be  "  richly  endowed 
with  the  Spirit."  I  had  a  peculiar  psycho- 
logical experience  with  Larkin.  After  I  had 
spoken  at  some  length  in  my  own  defence, 
Larkin  rose  to  work  himself  up  into  one  of  the 
rhapsodies  for  which  he  was  noted.  "  Brother 
Frank,"  he  began,  "I  want  to  bear  my  testi- 
mony to  you  that  this  is  the  work  of  God — 
and  nothing  can  stay  its  progress — and  all  who 
interfere  will  be  swept  away  as  chaff" — rising 
to  those  transports  of  auto-hypnotic  exalta- 
tion which  such  as  he  accept  as  the  effect 
of  the  spirit  of  God  speaking  through  them. 
'You  were  born  in  the  covenant,  and  the 
condemnation  is  more  severe  upon  one  who 
has  the  birthright  than  upon  one  not  of  the 
faith  who  fights  against  the  authority  of  God's 
servants."  I  had  concluded  to  try  the  effect 
of  a  resistant  mental  force,  and  while  I  stared 
at  him  I  was  saying  to  myself:  "This  is  a 
mere  vapor  of  words.  You  shall  not  continue 
in  this  tirade.  Stop!"  He  began  to  have 
difficulty  in  finding  his  phrases.  The  expected 
afflatus  did  not  seem  to  have  arrived  to  lift 
him.  He  faltered,  hesitated,  and  finally,  with 
an  explanation  that  he  had  not  been  feeling 
we1!,  he  resumed  his  seat,  apologetically. 

That   left   me   free   to    "bear   testimony" 

331 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

somewhat  myself.  I  warned  the  members 
of  the  "court"  that  no  work  of  righteousness 
could  succeed  except  by  keeping  faith  with 
the  Almighty — which  meant  keeping  faith 
with  his  children  upon  earth.  I  reminded 
them  of  the  dark  days,  which  all  of  them 
could  recall,  when  we  had  repeatedly  cove- 
nanted to  God  and  to  the  nation  that  if  we 
could  be  relieved  of  what  we  deemed  the 
world's  oppression  we  would  fulfil  every 
obligation  of  our  promises.  I  pointed  out 
to  them  that  the  Church  was  passing  into 
the  ways  of  the  world ;  that  our  people  were 
being  pauperized;  that  some  of  them  were 
in  the  poorhouses  in  their  old  age  after  having 
paid  tithes  all  their  active  lives;  that  by  our 
practices  we  were  bearing  testimony  against 
the  revelations  which  Mormons  proclaimed 
to^the  world  for  the  salvation  of  the  bodies 
and'souls  of  men. 

They  listened  to  me  with  the  same  friendly 
spirit  that  had  marked  all  their  proceedings — 
for  these  men  had  no  animosity  against  me; 
they  were  merely  obeying  the  orders  of  their 
superiors.  And  when  we  arose  to  disperse, 
the  bishop  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  and 
said,  in  the  usual  form  of  words:  "Brother 
Frank,  we  will  consider  your  case,  and  if  we 
find  you  ought  to  do  anything  to  make  matters 
right,  we  will  let  you  know  what  it  is." 

I  returned  to  my  home,  where  I  had  left 
my  wife  and  children  chatting  at  the  dinner 

332 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

table.  They  had  known  where  I  was  going. 
They  knew  what  the  issue  of  my  " trial" 
would  be  for  them  and  for  me.  Yet  when  I 
came  back  to  them,  none  asked  me  any  ques- 
tions and  none  seemed  perturbed.  And  this 
is  typical  of  the  Mormon  family.  I  think 
the  experiences  through  which  the  people 
have  passed  have  given  them  a  quality  of 
cheerful  patience.  They  have  been  schooled 
to  bear  persecution  with  quiet  fortitude. 
Tragedy  sweeps  by  them  in  the  daily  current 
of  life.  A  young  man  goes  on  a  mission,  and 
dies  in  a  foreign  land ;  and  his  parents  accept 
their  bereavement  like  Spartans,  almost  with- 
out mourning,  sustained  by  the  religious 
belief  that  he  has  ended  his  career  gloriously. 
Taught  to  devote  themselves  and  their 
children  and  their  worldly  goods  to  the  ser- 
vice of  their  Church,  they  accept  even  the 
impositions  and  injustices  of  the  Church 
leaders  with  a  powerful  forbearance  that  is  at 
once  a  strength  and  a  weakness. 

Two  days  later  I  was  met  on  the  street  by 
a  young  Dutch  elder,  who  could  scarcely 
speak  English,  and  he  gave  me  the  official 
document  from  the  bishop's  court  notifying 
me  that  I  had  been  "  disfellowshipped  for 
unchristianlike  conduct  and  apostasy."  I 
was  then  summoned  to  appear  before  the 
High  Council  of  the  Stake  in  excommunica- 
tion proceedings,  and  after  filing  a  defence 
which  it  is  unnecessary  to  give  here — and 

333 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

after  refusing  to  appear  before  the  Council 
for  reasons  that  it  is  equally  unnecessary  to 
repeat — I  was  excommunicated  on  March  14, 
1905.  No  denial  was  made  by  the  Church 
authorities  of  any  of  the  charges  which  I  had 
made  against  Smith.  No  trial  was  made  of 
the  truth  of  those  charges.  As  a  free  citizen 
of  "  one  of  the  freest  communities  under  the 
sun,"  I  was  officially  ostracized  by  order  of 
the  religious  despot  of  the  community  for 
daring  to  utter  what  everyone  knew  to  be 
the  truth  about  him. 

For  myself,  of  course,  no  edict  of  excom- 
munication had  any  terrors;  but  the  aim  of 
the  authorities  was  to  make  me  suffer  through 
the  sufferings  of  my  family;  and,  in  that,  they 
succeeded.  I  shall  not  write  of  it.  It  has 
little  place  in  such  a  public  record  as  this, 
and  I  do  not  wish  to  present  myself,  in  any 
record,  as  a  martyr.  It  was  not  /  who  was 
ostracized  from  the  Mormon  Church  by  my 
excommunication;  it  was  the  right  of  free 
speech.  The  Mormon  Church  deprived  me 
of  nothing;  it  deprived  itself  of  the  helpful 
criticism  of  its  members.  No  anathema  of 
bigotry  could  take  from  me  the  affection  of 
my  family  or  the  respect  of  any  friends  whose 
respect  was  worth  the  coveting.  In  that 
regard  I  suffered  only  in  my  pity  for  those 
of  my  neighbors  who  were  so  blindly  ser- 
vile to  the  decrees  of  religious  tyranny  that 
they  turned  their  backs  on  the  voice  of  their 

334 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

own  liberty  raised,  in  protest,  for  their  own 
defence. 

And  it  was  not  by  the  individual  protestants 
but  by  the  entire  community  that  the  heaviest 
price  was  paid  in  this  whole  conflict.  It 
divided  the  state  again  into  the  old  factions 
and  involved  it  in  the  old  war  from  which  it 
had  been  rescued.  The  Mormons  instituted 
a  determined  boycott  against  all  Gentiles, 
and  "Thou  shalt  not  support  God's  enemies" 
became  a  renewed  commandment  of  the 
Prophet.  Wherever  a  Gentile  was  employed 
in  any  Mormon  institution,  he  was  discharged, 
almost  without  exception,  whether  or  not 
he  had  been  an  active  member  of  the  American 
party.  Teachers  in  the  Church  would  ex- 
claim with  horror  if  they  heard  that  a  Mormon 
family  was  employing  a  Gentile  physician; 
and  more  than  one  Mormon  litigant  was 
advised  that  he  not  only  "sinned  against  the 
work  of  God,"  but  endangered  the  success  of 
his  law  suit,  by  retaining  a  Gentile  lawyer. 
Politicians  were  told  that  if  they  aided  the 
American  party,  they  need  never  hope  for 
advancement  in  this  world,  or  expect  any- 
thing but  eternal  condemnation  in  the  world 
to  come;  and  though  few  of  them  counted 
on  the  "spoils"  of  the  hereafter,  they  under- 
stood and  appreciated  the  power  of  the 
hierarchy  to  reward  in  the  present  day.  The 
Gentiles  did  not  attempt  any  boycott  in 
retaliation;  they  had  not  the  solidarity 

335 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

necessary  to  such  an  attempt;  and  many 
Gentile  business  men,  in  order  to  get  any 
Mormon  patronage  whatever,  were  compelled 
to  employ  none  but  Mormon  clerks. 

The  Gentiles  had  been  largely  attracted 
to  Utah  by  its  mines;  they  were  heavily 
interested  in  the  smelting  industry.  Colonel 
E.  A.  Wall,  one  of  the  strongest  supporters 
of  the  American  party,  owned  copper  prop- 
erties, was  an  inventor  of  methods  of  reduc- 
tion, and  had  large  smelting  industries.  Ex- 
Senator  Thomas  Kearns,  and  his  partner 
David  Keith,  owners  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune, 
and  many  of  their  associates,  had  their  for- 
tunes in  mines  and  smelters;  they  were 
leaders  of  the  American  party  and  they  were 
attempting  to  enlist  with  them  such  men  as 
W.  S.  McCornick,  a  Gentile  banker  and  mine 
owner,  and  D.  C.  J adding,  president  of  the 
Utah  Copper  Company,  who  is  now  one  of  the 
heads  of  the  national  " copper  combine"  and 
one  of  the  ablest  men  of  the  West. 

In  1904,  in  the  midst  of  the  political  crisis, 
the  Church  newspapers  served  editorial  notice 
on  these  men  that,  on  account  of  the  smelter 
fumes  and  their  destructive  effect  upon  the 
vegetation  of  the  valley,  the  smelters  must  go; 
and  that  if  the  present  laws  were  not  sufficient, 
new  laws  would  be  enacted  to  drive  them  out. 
Men  like  Wall  and  Keith  and  Kearns  and 
Walker  were  not  terrorized;  but  McCornick 
and  Jackling  and  the  representatives  of  the 

336 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

American  Smelting  and  Refining  Company 
either  surrendered  to  a  discreet  silence  or 
openly  joined  the  Church  in  the  campaign. 
They  were  rewarded  with  the  assurance  that 
the  Church  would  protect  them  against  any 
labor  trouble  and  that  no  adverse  legislation 
would  be  attempted  against  them.  Today 
Jackling,  of  the  copper  combine,  is  a  news- 
paper partner  of  Apostle  Smoot,  and  he  is 
mentioned  for  the  United  States  Senate  as 
the  Church's  selection  to  succeed  George 
Sutherland.  The  Church  has  large  mining 
interests;  Smoot  and  Smith  are  in  close 
affiliation  with  the  smelting  trust;  and  this 
is  another  powerful  partnership  in  Washington 
that  protected  Smoot  in  his  seat  and  has  been 
rewarded  by  the  Church's  assistance  in  looting 
the  nation. 


337 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  NEW  POLYGAMY 

In  the  old  days  of  Mormonism — and  as  late 
as  the  anti-polygamous  manifesto  of  1890— 
the  whole  aim  and  effort  of  the  Church  was 
to  exalt  and  sanctify  and  make  pure  the 
practice  of  plural  marriage  by  means  of  the 
community's  respect  and  the  reverences  of 
religion.  The  doctrine  of  polygamy  was 
taught  as  a  revealed  mystery  of  faith.  It  was 
accepted  as  a  sacrament  ordained  by  God  for 
the  salvation  of  mankind.  The  most  im- 
portant families  in  the  Church  dignified  it  by 
their  participation,  and  were  in  turn  dignified 
by  the  Church's  approval  and  by  the  wealth 
and  power  that  followed  approval.  The  in- 
evitable mental  sufferings  of  the  plural  wives 
were  endured  by  them  as  part  of  an  earthly 
self-immolation  required  by  God,  for  which 
they  should  be  rewarded  in  eternity.  The 
very  necessities  of  their  situation  compelled 
them  to  exact  and  cherish  a  super-reverence 
for  the  doctrine  of  plural  marriage — since 
the  only  way  a  mother  could  justify  herself 
to  her  children  was  by  teaching,  as  she  be- 
lieved, that  she  had  been  selected  by  God  for 
the  exaltation  of  this  sacrifice,  and  by  incul- 
cating in  her  children  a  scrupulous  respect 

338 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  sexual  purity.  There  was  no  pretense  of 
denial  of  the  polygamous  relation.  Plural 
wives  held  the  place  of  honor  in  the  com- 
munity. Their  marriages  were  considered 
the  most  sanctified.  They  and  their  progeny 
were  called  ''the  wives  and  children  of  the 
holy  covenant,"  and  they  were  esteemed 
accordingly. 

But  as  the  history  of  the  Church  shows, 
plural  marriage  was  always  a  heavy  cross  to 
the  Mormon  women;  many  had  refused  to 
bear  it,  in  the  face  of  the  frequent  pulpit 
scoldings  of  the  Prophets;  and  few  did  not 
sometime  weep  under  it  in  the  secrecy  of  their 
family  life.  In  the  days  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  manifesto  of  1890,  there  was  a 
general  hope  and  longing  among  the  Mormon 
mothers  that  God  would  permit  a  relief  before 
their  daughters  and  their  sons  should  become 
of  an  age  to  be  drafted  into  the  ranks  of 
polygamy.  The  great  majority  of  the  young 
men  were  monogamists.  It  required  the 
strong  persuasions  of  personal  affection  as 
well  as  the  authority  of  Divine  command  to 
make  the  young  women  accept  a  polygamist 
in  marriage.  And  when  the  Church  received 
President  Woodruff's  anti-polygamous  reve- 
lation, every  profound  human  emotion  of  the 
people  coincided  with  the  promise  to  abstain. 

Only  among  a  few  of  the  polygamous 
leaders  themselves  was  there  any  inclination 
to  break  the  Church's  pledge — an  inclination 

339 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

that  was  strengthened  by  resentment  against 
the  Federal  power  that  had  compelled  the 
giving  of  the  pledge.  Almost  immediately 
upon  obtaining  the  freedom  of  statehood, 
some  of  these  leaders  returned  to  the  practice 
of  polygamous  cohabitation — although  they 
had  accepted  the  revelation,  had  bound  them- 
selves by  their  covenant  to  the  nation  and 
had  solemnly  subscribed  to  the  terms  of  their 
amnesty.  To  justify  themselves,  they  found 
it  necessary  to  teach  that  polygamy  was  still 
approved  by  the  law  of  God — that  the  practice 
of  plural  marriage  had  only  been  abandoned 
because  it  was  forbidden  by  the  laws  of  man. 
Joseph  F.  Smith  continued  to  live  with  his 
five  wives  and  to  rear  children  by  all  of  them. 
Those  of  the  apostles  who  were  not  assured 
of  that  attainment  to  the  principality  of 
Heaven  which  was  promised  the  man  of  five 
wives  and  proportionate  progeny,  were  natu- 
rally tempted  (if,  indeed,  they  were  not 
actually  encouraged)  to  take  Joseph  F.  Smith 
as  their  examplar.  It  was  scarcely  worse 
to  break  the  covenant  by  taking  a  new  polyga- 
mous wife  than  by  continuing  polygamous 
relations  with  former  plural  wives;  and  when 
an  apostle  took  a  new  polygamous  wife,  his 
inevitable  and  necessary  course  was  to  justify 
himself  by  the  authority  of  God.  He  could 
not  then  deny  the  same  authority  to  the  minor 
ecclesiasts,  even  if  he  had  wished  to.  And, 
finally,  when  the  evil  circle  spread  to  the  man 

340 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

on  the  fringe  of  the  Church — who  could  not 
obtain  even  such  poor  authorization  for  his 
perfidy — he  found  a  way  to  perpetrate  a 
pretended  plural  marriage  with  his  victim, 
and  the  Church  authorities  did  not  dare  but 
protect  him. 

This  was  polygamy  without  the  great 
saving  grace  that  had  previously  defended 
the  Mormon  women  from  the  cruelties  and 
abuses  of  the  practice.  It  was  polygamy 
without  honor — polygamy  against  an  assumed 
revelation  of  God  instead  of  by  virtue  of  one — 
polygamy  worse  than  that  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans, since  it  was  necessarily  clandestine, 
could  claim  no  social  respect  or  acceptance, 
and  was  forbidden  "by  the  laws  of  God  and 
man"  alike. 

This  is  the  "  new  polygamy  "  of  Mormonism. 
The  Church  leaders  dare  not  acknowledge  it — 
for  fear  of  the  national  consequences.  They 
dare  not  even  secretly  issue  certificates  of 
plural  marriage,  lest  the  record  should  be 
betrayed.  They  protect  the  polygamist  by 
a  conspiracy  of  falsehood  that  is  almost  as 
shameful  as  the  shame  it  seeks  to  cover;  and 
the  infection  of  the  duplicity  spreads  like  a 
plague  to  corrupt  the  whole  social  life  of  the 
people.  The  wife  of  a  new  polygamist  cannot 
claim  a  husband;  she  has  no  social  status; 
she  cannot,  even  to  her  parents,  prove  the 
religious  sanction  for  her  marital  relations. 
Her  children  are  taught  that  they  must  not 

341 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

use  a  father's  name.  They  are  hopelessly 
outside  the  law — without  the  possibility  that 
any  further  statutes  of  legitimization  will  be 
enacted  for  their  relief.  They  are  born  in 
falsehood  and  bred  to  the  living  of  a  lie.  Their 
father  cannot  claim  the  authority  of  the 
Church  for  their  parentage,  for  he  must  pro- 
tect his  Prophet.  He  cannot  even  publicly 
acknowledge  them — any  more  than  he  can 
publicly  acknowledge  their  mother. 

Out  of  these  terrible  conditions  comes  such 
an  instance  as  the  notorious  case  of  one  of 
Henry  S.  Tanner's  wives,  who  went  on  a  visit 
to  one  of  her  relatives,  with  her  children,  and 
denied  that  they  were  her  children,  and  denied 
that  she  was  married — and  was  supported 
by  her  children's  denial  that  she  was  their 
mother.  Similarly,  a  plural  wife  of  a  wealthy 
Mormon,  whose  fortune  is  estimated  at 
$25,000,000 — a  partner  of  the  sugar  trust, 
a  community  leader,  a  favorite  of  the  Church — 
went  before  the  Senate  Committee  in  Decem- 
ber, 1904,  and  swore  that  her  first  husband 
had  died  thirteen  years  before,  that  she  had 
had  a  child  within  six  years,  and  that  she  had 
no  second  husband.  And  by  doing  so  she  not 
only  marked  the  child  as  illegitimate  beyond 
the  relief  of  any  future  statutes-  legitimizing 
the  offspring  of  polygamous  marriages,  but 
she  left  herself  and  the  child  without  any 
claim  upon  the  estate  of  its  father  and  publicly 
swore  herself  a  social  outcast  before  a  com- 

342 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

mittee  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  per- 
jured herself — to  the  knowledge  of  all  her 
friends  and  acquaintances  in  Utah — for  the 
protection  of  her  husband  and  her  Church. 
What  can  one  say  of  a  man  who  will  permit 
a  woman  to  commit  such  an  act  of  social 
suicide  for  him — or  of  a  Church  that  will  com- 
mand it? 

Here  is  a  condition  of  society  unparalleled 
anywhere  else  in  civilization — unparalleled 
even  in  barbarous  countries,  for  wherever  else 
polygamy  is  practised  it  at  least  has  the  sanc- 
tion of  local  convention.  And  the  consequent 
suffering  that  falls  upon  the  women  and  the 
children  is  a  heart-break  to  see.  During  the 
days  when  I  was  in  the  editorial  office  of  the 
Salt  Lake  Tribune,  scores  of  miserable  cases 
came  to  my  knowledge  by  letter,  by  the  report 
of  friends,  and  by  the  visits  of  the  agonized 
wives  themselves.  I  shall  never  forget  one 
young  woman,  in  her  twenties,  who  came  to 
ask  my  help  in  forcing  her  husband  to  obtain 
a  marriage  certificate  for  her  from  the  Church, 
so  that  her  boy  might  have  the  right  to  claim 
a  father.  She  wept,  with  her  head  on  my 
desk,  sobbing  out  her  story,  and  appealing 
to  me  for  aid  with  a  convulsed  and  tear- 
drenched  face. 

Four  years  earlier,  she  had  become  friendly 
with  a  man  twice  her  age,  whom  she  admired 
and  respected.  He  had  taken  two  wives 
before  the  manifesto  of  1890,  but  that  did  not 

343 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

prevent  him  from  coveting  the  youth  and 
beauty  of  this  young  woman.  He  first  ap- 
proached her  mother  for  permission  to  marry 
the  girl,  and  when  the  mother — who  was  her- 
self a  plural  wife — replied  that  it  was  im- 
possible under  the  law,  he  brought  an  apostle 
to  persuade  her  that  the  practice  of  plural 
marriage  was  still  as  meet,  just  and  available 
to  salvation  as  it  had  been  when  she  married. 
Then  he  went  to  the  daughter. 

"I  was  terrified,"  she  said,  "when  he  pro- 
posed to  me.  And  yet — he  asked  me  if  I 
thought  my  mother  had  done  wrong  when 
she  married  my  father.  .  .  .  There  was  no  one 
else  I  liked  as  much.  He  was  good.  He 
was  rich.  He  told  me  I'd  never  want  for 
anything.  He  said  I  would  be  fulfilling  the 
command  of  God  against  the  wickedness  of 
a  persecuting  world.  ...  I  don't  know  what 
devil  of  fanaticism  entered  into  me.  I  thought 
it  would  be  smart  to  defy  the  United  States." 

Late  one  night,  by  appointment,  he  called 
for  her  with  a  carriage,  driven  by  a  man  un- 
known to  her,  and  took  her  to  a  darkened 
house  that  had  a  dim  light  only  in  the  hallway. 
They  entered  alone  and  turned  into  a  parlor 
that  was  dark,  except  for  the  reflection  from 
the  hall.  He  led  her  up  to  the  portieres  that 
hung  across  an  inner  door,  and  through  the 
opening  between  the  curtains  she  saw  the 
indistinct  figure  of  a  man.  They  stood  before 
him,  hand  in  hand,  while  he  mumbled  over 

344 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  words  of  a  ceremony  that  sounded  to  her 
like  the  ceremonies  she  had  heard  in  the 
Temple.  She  caught  little  of  it  clearly;  she 
remembered  practically  nothing.  She  was 
not  given  anything  to  show  that  a  ceremony 
had  been  performed,  and  she  did  not  ask  for 
anything.  The  elderly  bridegroom  kissed 
her  when  the  mumbling  ceased,  led  her  out 
to  the  carriage,  took  her  back  to  her  mother's 
house,  and  that  night  became  her  husband. 

She  bore  him  a  son.  No  one  except  her 
mother,  her  father  and  a  few  trusted  friends 
knew  that  she  was  married.  In  the  early 
months  of  1905  she  read  in  the  Tribune  the 
testimony  given  before  the  Senate  committee 
by  Professor  James  E.  Talmage,  for  the 
Church,  to  the  effect  that  since  the  manifesto 
of  1890  neither  the  President  of  the  Church 
nor  anybody  else  in  the  Church  had  power 
to  authorize  a  plural  marriage,  and  that  any 
woman  who  had  become  a  plural  wife,  since 
the  manifesto,  was  "  no  more  a  wife  by  the  law 
of  the  Church,  than  she  is  by  the  law  of  the 
land." 

She  asked  her  husband  about  it.  He  replied 
that  an  apostle  had  married  them.  "  I  asked 
my  husband,"  she  said,  "to  get  a  certificate 
of  marriage  from  the  apostle.  He  told  me 
I  needed  none — that  it  was  recorded  in  the 
books  here  and  recorded  in  heaven — that  it 
would  put  the  apostle  in  danger  if  he  were  to 
sign  such  a  paper.  I  said  that  that  was  noth- 

345 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ing  to  me — that  I  wanted  to  protect  my  good 
name.  Finally,  he  said  it  was  not  an  apostle. 
Then  we  had  a  bitter  scene.  And  he  did  not 
come  back  for  a  long  time.  And  he  didn't 
write  as  long  as  he  stayed  away. 

"When  he  came  back  he  was  more  loving 
than  ever.  I  was  afraid  of  having  more 
children.  I  said  to  him:  'You  cannot  hold 
me  as  a  wife  any  longer  unless  you  write  a 
paper  certifying  that  I'm  your  wife  and  this 
boy  is  your  child.  You  may  place  that  paper 
anywhere  you  like,  so  long  as  I  know  I  can 
get  it  in  case  you  die.  Suppose  you  were  to 
die  and  all  your  folks  were  to  deny  that  I  was 
your  wife — say  that  I  was  an  imposter — that 
I  was  trying  to  foist  my  boy  on  the  estate  of 
a  dead  man — in  the  name  of  God,  then  what 
could  I  do?'  He  went  away;  and  he  hasn't 
come  back;  and  he  hasn't  written.  I  don't 
know  who  married  us.  I  don't  even  know  the 
house  where  it  happened.  I  don't  know  who 
the  driver  was.  I  don't  even  know  who  the 
apostle  was  that  told  mother  it  would  be  all 
right.  He  made  her  promise  under  a  cove- 
nant not  to  tell. 

"  I  don't  know  where  to  go.  A  friend  of 
mine  told  me  you  would  advise  me.  He  said 
perhaps  you  could  make  them  give  me  a 
certificate.  I  don't  want  to  expose  my  hus- 
band. I  only  want  something  so  that  my 
boy,  when  he  grows  up,  won't  be" — 

What  could  I  do  ?     What  could  anyone  do 

346 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  this  unfortunate  girl,  seduced  in  the  name 
of  religion,  with  the  aid  of  a  Church  that 
repudiated  her  for  its  own  protection?  She 
had  to  suffer,  and  see  her  boy  suffer,  the  pen- 
alties of  a  social  outcast. 

Her  case  was  typical  of  many  that  came  to 
my  personal  knowledge.  At  the  Sunday 
Schools,  in  the  choirs,  in  the  joint  meetings 
of  mutual  improvement  associations,  young 
girls — taught  to  believe  that  plural  marriage 
was  sacred,  and  reverencing  the  polygamous 
prophets  as  the  anointed  of  the  Lord — were 
being  seduced  into  clandestine  marriage  rela- 
tions with  polygamous  elders  who  persuaded 
their  victims  that  the  anti-polygamous  mani- 
festo had  been  given  out  to  save  a  persecuted 
people  from  the  cruelties  of  an  unjust  govern- 
ment ;  that  it  was  never  intended  it  should  be 
obeyed ;  that  all  the  celestial  blessings  prom- 
ised by  revelation  to  the  polygamist  and  his 
wives  were  still  waiting  for  those  who  would 
dare  to  enjoy  them. 

If  the  tempted  girl  turned  to  one  of  her 
women  friends,  and  besought  her  to  say,  on 
her  honor,  whether  she  thought  that  plural 
marriage  was  right,  the  other  was  likely 
enough  to  answer:  :<Yes,  yes.  Indeed  it  is. 
Promise  me  you  won't  tell  a  living  soul.  Tell 
me  you'll  die  first.  ...  I'm  married  to  Brother 
L ,  the  leader  of  the  ward  choir. ' ' 

If  she  asked  her  mother:  "Tell  me.  Is 
plural  marriage  wrong?"  the  mother  could 

347 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

only  reply:  "Oh — I  don't  know — I  don't 
know.  Your  father  said  it  was  right,  and 
I  accepted  it — and  we  practised  it — and  you 
have  always  loved  your  other  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  it  seems  to  me  it  can't  be  wrong, 
since  we  have  lived  it.  But — Oh,  I  don't 
know,  daughter.  I  don't  know." 

The  man  who  is  tempting  her  knows.  He 
has  the  word  of  an  apostle,  the  example  of 
the  Prophet,  the  secret  teaching  of  the  Church. 
He  courts  her  as  any  other  religious  young 
girl  might  be  courted — with  little  attentions, 
at  the  meetings,  over  the  music  books — and 
he  has,  to  aid  him,  a  religious  exaltation  in 
her,  induced  by  his  plea  that  she  is  to  enter 
into  the  mystery  of  the  holy  covenant,  to 
become  one  of  the  most  faithful  of  a  persecuted 
Church,  to  defy  the  wicked  laws  of  its  enemies. 
She  is  just  as  happy  in  her  betrothal  as  any 
other  innocent  girl  of  her  age.  Even  the 
secrecy  is  sweet  to  her.  And  then,  some 
evening,  they  saunter  down  a  side  street  to 
a  strange  house — or  even  to  a  back  orchard 
where  a  man  is  waiting  in  a  cowl  under  a  tree — 
(perhaps  vulgarly  disguised  as  a  woman  with 
a  veil  over  his  face) — and  they  are  married 
in  a  mutter  of  which  she  hears  nothing. 

Such  a  case  was  related  to  me  by  a  horrified 
mother  who  had  discovered  that  the  marriage 
ceremony  had  been  performed  by  an  accom- 
plice of  the  libertine  who  had  seduced  her 
daughter  and  since  confessed  his  crime.  But 

348 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

whether  the  ceremony  be  performed  by  a 
priest  of  the  Church  or  by  a  more  unauthorized 
scoundrel,  the  girl  is  equally  at  the  mercy  of 
her  " husband"  and  equally  betrayed  in  the 
world.  Even  in  this  case  of  the  pretended 
marriage,  the  elders  of  the  ward  hushed  up 
the  threatened  prosecution  because  the  author- 
ities of  the  Church  objected  to  a  proceeding 
that  might  expose  other  plural  marriages 
more  orthodox. 

Hundreds  of  Mormon  men  and  women 
personally  thanked  me  by  letter  or  in  inter- 
views at  the  Tribune  office,  for  our  editorial 
attacks  upon  the  hierarchy  for  encouraging 
these  horrors.  Strangers  spoke  to  me  on 
railroad  trains,  thanking  me  and  telling  me 
of  cases.  Three  Mormon  physicians,  them- 
selves priests  of  the  Church,  told  me  of  in- 
numerable instances  that  had  come  to  them 
in  their  practice,  and  said  that  they  did  not 
know  what  was  to  become  of  the  community. 
One  Mormon  woman  wrote  me  from  Mexico 
to  say  that  she  had  exiled  herself  there  with 
her  husband  and  his  two  plural  wives,  and 
that  she  felt  she  had  worked  out  sufficient 
atonement  for  all  her  descendants;  yet  she 
saw  girls  of  the  family  on  the  verge  of  entering 
into  plural  marriage — if  they  had  not  already 
done  so — and  she  begged  us  to  continue  our 
newspaper  exposures,  so  that  others  might 
be  saved  from  the  bitter  experiences  of  her 
life. 

349 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

President  Winder  met  me  on  the  street 
in  1905,  towards  the  close  of  the  year,  and 
said:  "Frank,  you  need  not  continue  your 
fight  against  plural  marriage.  President 
Smith  has  stopped  it."  "Then,"  I  replied, 
"two  things  are  evident:  I  have  been  telling 
the  truth  when  I  said  that  plural  marriage 
had  been  renewed — in  spite  of  the  authorized 
denials — and  if  President  Smith  has  stopped 
it  now,  he  has  had  authority  over  it  all  the 
time." 

To  me,  or  to  any  other  well-informed  citizen 
of  Utah,  President  Winder's  admission  was 
not  necessary  to  prove  Smith's  responsibility. 
In  the  April  conference  of  1904,  Smith  had 
read  an  "official  statement,"  signed  by  him, 
prohibiting  plural  marriages  and  threatening 
to  excommunicate  any  officer  or  member  of  the 
Church  who  should  solemnize  one;  and  this 
official  statement  was  carried  to  the  Senate 
committee  by  Professor  James  E.  Talmage, 
and  offered  in  proof  that  the  Church  was  keep- 
ing its  covenant. 

For  us,  in  Utah,  the  declaration  served 
merelyffco  illuminate  the  dark  places  of  eccle- 
siastical bad  faith.  We  knew  that  from  the 
year  1900  down,  there  had  never  been  a 
sermon  preached  in  any  Mormon  tabernacle, 
by  any  of  the  general  authorities  of  the 
Church,  against  the  practice  of  plural  marriage, 
or  against  the  propriety  of  the  practice,  or 
against  the  sanctity  of  the  doctrine.  We 

350 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

knew,  on  the  contrary,  that  upon  numerous 
occasions,  at  funerals  and  in  public  assem- 
blages, Joseph  F.  Smith  and  John  Henry  Smith 
and  others  of  the  hierarchy,  had  proclaimed 
the  doctrine  as  sacred.  We  knew  that  it  was 
still  being  taught  in  the  secret  prayer  meetings. 
Practically  all  the  leading  authorities  of  the 
Church  were  living  in  plural  marriage.  Some 
of  them  had  taken  new  wives  since  the  mani- 
festo. None  of  them  had  been  actually  pun- 
ished. All  were  in  high  favor.  And  though 
Joseph  F.  Smith  denied  his  responsibility, 
every  one  knew  that  none  of  these  things 
could  be,  except  with  his  active  approval. 

Perhaps,  for  a  brief  time,  while  Smoot's 
case  was  still  before  the  Senate,  some  check 
was  put  upon  the  renewal  of  polygamy. 
But,  even  then,  there  were  undoubtedly, 
occasional  marriages  allowed,  where  the 
parties  were  so  situated  as  to  make  conceal- 
ment perfect.  And  all  checks  were  withdrawn 
when  Smoot's  case  was  favorably  disposed  of, 
and  the  Church  found  itself  protected  by  the 
political  power  of  the  administration  at 
Washington  and  by  a  political  and  financial 
alliance  with  "the  Interests." 

Today,  in  spite  of  the  difficulty  of  discover- 
ing plural  marriages,  because  of  the  conceal- 
ments by  which  they  are  protected,  the  Salt 
Lake  Tribune  is  publishing  a  list  of  more  than 
two  hundred  "new"  polygamists  with  the 
date's  and  circumstances  of  their  marriages ; 

351 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  these  are  probably  not  one  tenth  of  all 
the  cases.  During  President  Taft's  visit  to 
Salt  Lake  City,  in  1909,  Senator  Thomas 
Kearns,  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  Tribune, 
offered  to  prove  to  one  of  the  President's 
confidants  hundreds  of  cases  of  new  polygamy, 
if  the  President  would  designate  two  secret 
service  men  to  investigate.  I  believe,  from 
my  own  observation,  that  there  are  more 
plural  wives  among  the  Mormons  today  than 
there  were  before  1890.  Then  the  young  men 
married  early,  and  were  chiefly  monogamists. 
Now  the  change  in  economic  conditions  has 
raised  the  age  at  which  men  marry;  it  has 
made  more  bachelors  than  there  were  when 
simpler  modes  of  life  prevailed.  The  young 
women  have  fewer  offers  of  marriage,  and 
more  of  these  come  from  well-to-do  polyga- 
mists.  The  girls  are  still  taught,  as  they  have 
always  been,  that  marriage  is  necessary  to 
salvation;  and  they  are  betrayed  into  plural 
marriage  by  natural  conditions  as  well  as  by 
the  persuasions  of  the  Church. 

A  perfect  ''underground"  system  has  been 
put  in  operation  for  the  protection  of  the  law- 
breakers. If  they  reside  in  Utah,  they  fre- 
quently go  to  Canada  or  to  Mexico  to  be 
married ;  and  the  whole  polygamous  parapher- 
nalia can  be  transported  with  ease  and  com- 
fort— the  priest  who  performs  the  ceremony, 
the  husband,  sometimes  the  legal  wife  to  give 
her  consent  so  that  she  may  not  be  damned, 

352 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

and  the  young  woman  whose  soul  is  to  be 
saved.  And  this  " underground"  is  main- 
tained against  the  reluctance  of  the  Mormon 
people.  They  aid  in  it  from  a  kindly  feeling 
toward  their  fellow-believers — and  with  some 
faint  thought  that  perhaps  these  wayfarers 
are  being  "persecuted"  — but  all  the  time 
with  no  personal  sympathy  for  polygamy. 
By  one  sincere  word  of  reprehension  from 
Joseph  F.  Smith  every  ''underground"  sta- 
tion could  be  abolished,  the  route  could  be 
destroyed,  and  an  end  could  be  put  to  the 
protection  that  is,  of  itself,  an  encouragement 
to  polygamous  practice.  He  has  never  spoken 
that  word. 

Recently,  the  way  in  which  the  new  polyg- 
amy is  perpetrated  in  Utah  has  been  almost 
officially  revealed.  A  patriarch  of  the  Church, 
resident  in  Davis  County,  less  than  fifteen 
miles  from  Salt  Lake  City,  had  been  solem- 
nizing these  unlawful  unions  at  wholesale. 
The  situation  became  so  notorious  that  the 
authorities  of  the  Church  felt  themselves 
impelled  about  September,  1910,  to  put 
restrictions  upon  his  activity.  In  the  course 
of  their  investigations  they  discovered  that 
he  did  not  know  the  persons  whom  he  married. 
They  would  come  to  his  house,  in  the  evening, 
wearing  handkerchiefs  over  their  faces;  he 
sat  hidden  behind  a  screen  in  his  parlor ;  and 
under  these  circumstances  the  two  were 
declared  man  and  wife,  and  were  sealed  up 

353 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  everlasting  bliss  to  rule  over  principalities 
and  kingdoms  with  power  of  endless  increase 
and  progression.  He  refused  to  tell  the 
hierarchy  from  which  one  of  the  authorities 
he  had  received  his  endowment  to  perpetrate 
these  crimes.  He  refused  to  give  the  names 
of  any  of  the  victims,  claiming  that  he  did 
not  know  them! 

It  is  probable  that  for  a  long  time  plural 
marriage  ceremonies  were  not  solemnized 
within  the  Salt  Lake  temple.  Now,  we  know 
that  there  have  lately  been  such  marriages 
in  it,  and  at  Manti,  and  at  Logan,  and  perhaps 
also  in  the  temple  at  St.  George.  There  are 
cases  on  record  where  a  man  has  a  wife  on 
one  side  of  the  Utah-Colorado  line  and  another 
wife  across  the  border.  No  prosecutions  are 
possible  in  Utah;  for,  as  Joseph  F.  Smith 
told  the  Senate  committee,  the  officers  of  the 
law  have  too  much  " respect"  for  the  ecclesi- 
astical rulers  of  the  state.  Similarly,  in  the 
surrounding  states,  the  officers  show  exactly 
the  same  sort  of  " respect"  and  for  the  same 
reason.  They  not  only  know  the  Church's 
power  in  local  politics,  but  they  see  the 
national  administration  allowing  the  polyga- 
mists  and  priests  of  the  Church  to  select  the 
Federal  officials,  and  they  are  not  eager  to 
rouse  a  resentment  against  themselves,  at 
Washington  as  well  as  at  home,  by  prosecuting 
polygamous  Mormons. 

Some  few  vears  ago,  Irving  Sayford,  then 

354 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

representing  the  Los  Angeles  Times,  asked 
Mr.  P.  H.  Lannan,  of  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune, 
why  someone  did  not  swear  out  warrants 
against  President  Smith  for  his  offences 
against  the  law.  Mr.  Lannan  said:  "You 
mean  why  don't  /  do  it?" 

"Oh,  no,"  Mr.  Sayford  explained,  "I  don't 
mean  you  particularly. ' ' 

"  Oh,  yes,  you  do,"  Mr.  Lannan  said.  "  You 
mean  me  if  you  mean  anybody.  If  it's  not 
my  duty,  it's  no  one's  duty.  .  .  .  Well,  I'll 
tell  you  why.  ...  I  don't  make  a  complaint, 
because  neither  the  district  attorney  nor  the 
prosecuting  attorney  would  entertain  it.  If 
he  did  entertain  it  and  issued  a  warrant,  the 
sheriff  would  refuse  to  serve  the  warrant.  If 
the  sheriff  served  the  warrant,  there  would 
be  no  witnesses  unless  /  got  them.  If  I  could 
get  the  witnesses,  they  wouldn't  testify  to 
the  facts  on  the  stand.  If  they  did  testify 
to  the  facts,  the  jury  wouldn't  bring  in  a 
verdict  of  guilty.  If  the  jury  did  bring  in 
a  verdict  of  guilty,  the  judge  would  suspend 
sentence.  If  the  judge  did  not  suspend  sen- 
tence, he  would  merely  fine  President  Smith, 
three  hundred  dollars.  And  within  twenty- 
four  hours  there  would  be  a  procession  of 
Mormons  and  Gentiles  crawling  on  their 
hands  and  knees  to  Church  headquarters  to 
offer  to  pay  that  three  hundred  dollar  fine 
at  a  dime  apiece." 

Mr.   Lannan 's  statement  of  the  case  was 

355 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

later  substantiated  by  an  action  of  the  Salt 
Lake  District  Court.  Upon  the  birth  of  the 
twelfth  child  that  has  been  borne  to  President 
Smith  in  plural  marriage  since  the  manifesto 
of  1890,  Charles  Mostyn  Owen  made  com- 
plaint in  the  District  Court  at  Salt  Lake, 
charging  Mr.  Smith  with  a  statutory  offence. 
The  District  Attorney  reduced  the  charge  to 
"unlawful  cohabitation"  (a  misdemeanor), 
without  the  complainant's  consent  or  knowl- 
edge. All  the  preliminaries  were  then  gra- 
ciously arranged  and  President  Smith  ap- 
peared in  the  District  Court  by  appointment. 
He  pleaded  guilty.  The  judge  in  sentencing 
him  remarked  that  as  this  was  the  first  time 
he  had  appeared  before  the  court,  he  would 
be  fined  three  hundred  dollars,  but  that 
should  he  again  appear,  the  penalty  might 
be  different.  Smith  had  already  testified 
in  Washington,  before  the  Senate  Committee, 
to  the  birth  of  eleven  children  in  plural  mar- 
riage since  he  had  given  his  covenant  to  the 
country  to  cease  living  in  polygamy;  he  had 
practically  defied  the  Senate  and  the  United 
States  to  punish  him;  he  had  said  that  he 
would  "stand"  his  "chances"  before  the  law 
and  courts  of  his  own  state.  All  of  this  was 
well  known  to  the  judge  who  fined  him  three 
hundred  dollars — a  sum  of  money  scarcely 
equal  to  the  amount  of  Smith's  official  income 
for  the  time  he  was  in  court ! 

A  leader  of  the  Church,  not  long  ago,  asked 

356 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

me,  in  private  conference,  what  was  the  policy 
of  the  American  party  with  regard  to  the  new 
plural  wives  and  their  children.  I  replied 
that  as  far  as  I  knew  it,  the  policy  was  to  have 
the  Church  accept  its  responsibility  in  the 
matter  and  give  the  wives  and  children  what- 
ever recognition  could  be  given  them  by  their 
religion.  The  Church  was  guilty  before  God 
and  man  of  having  encouraged  the  awful 
condition.  It  was  unspeakably  cowardly 
and  unfair  for  the  Church  leaders  to  put  the 
whole  burden  of  suffering  on  the  helpless 
women  and  children;  and,  moreover,  this 
course  was  a  justification  to  polygamists  in 
deserting  their  wives,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Church  had  never  sanctioned  the  relation. 

This  Church  leader,  himself  a  new  polyga- 
mist,  answered  miserably:  "The  Church 
will  not  let  itself  be  put  in  such  a  light  before 
the  country.  That  would  be  to  admit  that 
it  has  been  responsible  all  the  time." 

I  asked :  "  Has  the  Church  not  been  respon- 
sible?" 

He  replied — equivocating — :  "Well,  not 
the  Church.  The  Church  has  never  taken  a 
vote  on  it." 

"That,"  I  said,  "answers  why  you  have 
never  got  redress  and  never  will  get  it— 
because  you  are  all  liars,  from  top  to  bottom. 
You  know  you  would  never  have  entered 
the  polygamous  relation — nor  could  you  have 
induced  your  wife  to  enter  it — except  with 

357 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

full  knowledge  that  the  Church  did  authorize 
it.  The  Church  is  one  man,  and  you  know  it. 
The  whole  theory  of  your  theology  collapses 
if  you  deny  that." 

He  shook  his  head  blankly.  "I  don't 
know  what  is  to  become  of  us.  I  don't  see 
any  way  out." 

I  could  only  advise  him  that  he  should 
join  with  other  new  polygamists  in  demanding 
that  the  Church  authorities  make  all  possible 
reparation  to  the  women  and  children  who 
were  being  crushed  under  the  penalties  of 
the  Church's  crime.  But  I  knew  that  such 
advice  was  vain.  He  could  not  make  such 
a  demand,  any  more  than  any  other  slave 
could  demand  his  freedom.  And  if  the  non- 
polygamists  demanded  it,  the  Prophets  would 
deny  that  polygamy  was  being  practised. 
The  children  could  not  be  legitimized — for 
the  Church  cannot  obtain  legitimizing  stat- 
utes without  avowing  its  responsibility  for 
the  need  of  them;  and  the  Gentiles  can  not 
pass  such  statutes  without  encouraging  the 
continuance  of  polygamy  by  removing  the 
social  penalty  against  it. 

So  the  burden  of  all  this  guilt,  this  shame, 
this  deception,  falls  upon  the  unfortunate 
plural  wife  and  her  innocent  offspring.  She 
is  bound  by  the  most  sacred  obligations  never 
to  reveal  the  name  of  the  officiating  priest- 
even  if  she  knew  it — nor  to  disclose  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  ceremony.  She  has  justi- 

358 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

fied  her  degradation  by  the  assumption  that 
God  has  commanded  it ;  that  her  husband 
has  received  a  revelation  authorizing  him  to 
take  her  into  his  household ;  that  her  children 
will  be  legitimate  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  that 
eventually  the  civilized  world  will  come  to  a 
joyous  acceptance  of  the  practice  of  polygamy. 
When  the  trials  of  her  life  afflict  her  and  she 
finds  no  relentment  in  the  world's  disdain, 
she  sees  no  avenue  of  retreat.  To  break  the 
relation  is  to  imply  at  once  that  it  was  not 
ordained  of  God,  and  to  cast  a  darker  ig- 
nominy upon  her  unfortunate  children.  Her 
only  hope  lies  in  her  continued  submission 
to  her  husband  and  his  Church,  even  after 
she  has  mentally  and  morally  rejected  the 
doctrine  that  betrayed  her.  A  more  pitiably 
helpless  band  of  self-immolants  than  these 
Mormon  women  has  never  suffered  martyrdom 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Heaven  help 
them.  There  is  no  help  for  them  on  earth. 


359 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PROPHET  OF  MAMMON 

In  an  earlier  day  among  the  Mormons, 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  collected  one- 
tenth  of  the  " annual  increase"  of  the  faithful 
into  "the  storehouse  of  the  Lord;"  and  this 
was  practically  the  entire  assessment  made 
by  the  Church;  although,  by  the  same  law 
of  tithing,  every  Mormon  was  held  obliged 
to  consecrate  all  his  earthly  possessions  to 
"  God's  work  "  on  the  demand  of  the  Prophet. 
The  common  fund  was  used,  then,  to  promote 
community  enterprises  and  to  relieve  the 
poor.  The  tithe-payer  saw  the  good  result 
of  the  administration  of  the  Church's  moneys, 
and  was  generally  satisfied.  He  was  prom- 
ised eternal  happiness  if  he  paid  an  honest 
tithe,  but  he  was  also  given  an  earthly  re- 
ward— for  the  Church  admitted  him  to  many 
opportunities  and  enterprises  from  which  the 
niggardly  were  adroitly  excluded.  He  was 
spiritually  elevated  and  enlarged  by  giving 
for  a  purpose  that  he  considered  worthy— 
the  fulfilment  of  a  commandment  of  God  and 
the  relief  of  his  fellow-creatures — and  the 
community  benefited  by  having  a  part  of  its 
yearly  surplus  administered  for  the  common 
good. 

360 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

But  by  the  time  the  Church  had  reached 
its  third  generation  of  tithe-payers,  the  "  finan- 
cial Prophets"  had  made  a  change.  On  the 
theory  that  since  the  Mormons  were  paying 
the  bulk  of  the  taxes,  they  should  share  in 
the  distribution  of  the  public  relief  funds,  the 
Mormon  poor  were  denied  assistance  from 
"the  storehouse  of  the  Lord,"  and  were  com- 
pelled/to  enter  the  poor-houses,  to  seek  shelter 
on  the  "county  farms,"  or  to  take  charity 
from  their  neighbors.  The  resulting  degrada- 
tion of  a  sublime  principle  of  human  helpful- 
ness is  strikingly  shown  in  the  fact  that  in 
some  cases,  where  the  county  relief  funds  are 
distributed  through  a  Mormon  clerk  of  paupers 
for  out-door  relief,  the  Mormon  bishop  even 
collects  one- tenth  of  this  money,  from  the 
wretched  recipients,  as  their  contribution 
to  God  Almighty! 

Nor  is  the  greed  of  the  present  hierarchy 
satisfied  with  one- tenth  of  a  Mormon's  in- 
come. Said  Joseph  F.  Smith,  at  the  April 
Conference  of  1899  (according  to  the  Church's 
official  report) :  "  If  a  farmer  raises  two  thou- 
sand bushels  of  wheat,  as  the  result  of  his 
year's  labor,  how  many  bushels  should  he 
pay  for  tithing?  Well,  some  go  straightway 
to  dickering  with  the  Lord.  They  will  say 
that  they  hired  a  man  so  and  so,  and  his 
wages  must  be  taken  out;  that  they  had  to 
pay  such  and  such  expenses,  and  this  cost 
and  that  cost;  and  they  reckon  out  all  their 

361 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

expenses  and  tithe  the  balance."  To  Smith's 
inspired  financial  genius  this  was  "  dickering 
with  the  Lord."  He  wished  to  collect  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  farmer's  entire  yield — a  tithe 
that  would  have  bankrupted  the  farmer  in 
three  years! 

Nor  is  the  tithe  any  longer  the  only  exaction 
demanded  by  the  Prophet.  A  score  of  "do- 
nations" have  been  added.  There  is  the 
Stake  Tabernacle  Donation,  which  is  a  fund 
collected  from  the  Mormons  of  each  "Stake" 
(corresponding  usually  to  a  county)  for  the 
building  of  a  house  in  which  to  hold  Stake 
Conferences.  There  is  the  Ward  Meeting- 
House  Donation,  which  is  a  fund  collected 
from  the  Mormons  of  every  "ward"  for  the 
erection  of  a  local  chapel.  There  is  the  Fast 
Day  Donation,  made  up  of  contributions 
gathered  on  the  afternoon  of  the  first  Sunday 
of  each  month,  at  what  is  called  "  a  fast  meet- 
ing," for  the  support  of  the  local  poor;  and 
this  is  supplemented  by  the  Relief  Society 
Donation,  solicited  by  the  members  of  the 
Ladies  Relief  Society,  in  a  house-to-house 
canvass,  from  Mormons  and  Gentiles  alike. 
A  Light  and  Heat  Donation  is  collected  by  the 
deacons  of  the  wrard,  under  direction  of  the 
bishop,  to  pay  for  the  lighting  and  heating 
of  the  ward  meeting  house;  a  Missionary 
Donation  is  collected  at  a  "  Missionary  benefit 
entertainment,"  to  help  defray  the  expenses 
of  a  member  of  a  ward  sent  on  a  mission;  and 

362 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

since  a  missionary  must  necessarily  be  an 
elder,  a  Quorum  Missionary  Donation  is  also 
taken  from  his  fellow  members  of  the  quorum, 
to  assist  him.  So  far  as  the  Church  is  con- 
cerned, he  travels  "without  purse  or  scrip," 
by  order  of  "  revelation;"  but  this  inhibition 
does  not  extend  to  the  use  of  his  own  money — 
if  he  has  any  left  after  paying  the  other  exac- 
tions— nor  does  it  prevent  him  either  from 
receiving  contributions  from  his  impoverished 
fellows  or  accepting  charity  from  "  the  enemies 
of  God's  people, "  whom  he  labors  to  redeem. 
And  on  these  terms  about  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  adult  male  Mormons  perform  missionary 
services  for  the  Church. 

All  priesthood  quorums  have  monthly 
Quorum  Dues  collected  from  their  members. 
On  one  Sunday  of  each  month,  called  Nickel 
Sunday,  the  Sunday  School  members  pay  in 
five  cents  each  for  the  purchase  of  new  books, 
etc.  On  Dime  Tuesday,  once  a  month,  the 
members  of  the  Young  Men's  and  the  Young 
Women's  Mutual  Improvement  Associations 
pay  in  ten  cents  each  for  the  purchase  of  books, 
etc.  On  Nickel  Friday,  once  a  month,  the 
infant  members  of  the  Primary  Association 
pay  in  five  cents  each  to  the  association. 
Religious  Class  Donations  are  paid  once  a 
month  by  the  Mormon  public-school  pupils 
for  the  support  of  the  week-day  religious 
classes.  Amusement  Hall  Donations  are 
collected  from  the  members  of  a  ward  whose 

363 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

bishop  finds  them  able  to  build  a  place  of 
amusement.  When  a  temple  is  to  be  erected, 
Temple  Donations  are  collected,  continuously, 
until  the  work  is  finished  and  paid  for;  and 
when  members  of  the  Church  "go  through 
the  Temple,"  they  are  required  to  pay  another 
form  of  Temple  Donation  in  any  sum  that 
they  can  afford.  Should  a  need  arise,  not 
provided  for  by  the  specific  donations  given 
above,  a  Special  Donation  is  collected  to 
meet  it.  Yet  in  the  face  of  all  these  exactions 
of  tithes  and  donations,  the  ecclesiast  still 
boasts:  "We  are  not  like  the  'preachers  for 
hire  and  diviners  for  money.'  We  never 
pass  the  plate  at  our  sacred  services.  Our 
clergy  labor,  without  pay,  to  give  free  salva- 
tion to  a  sinful  world!" 

In  addition  to  doing  missionary  service, 
paying  tithes,  and  contributing  donations, 
the  latter-day  Mormon,  if  he  be  obedient  to 
the  counsel  of  the  Church's  anointed  financiers, 
must  support  the  commercial  and  financial 
undertakings  of  the  hierarchy.  These  are 
officially  designated  "the  Church's  institu- 
tions" by  the  authorities;  but  they  are  in  no 
way  the  property  of  the  Church.  They  are 
advertised  as  community  enterprises,  but 
they  are  such  only  in  the  sense  that  the 
community  is  commanded  by  "the  voice 
of  God  "  to  sustain  them.  There  is  no  voice 
of  God  to  command  a  distribution  of  their 
profits.  And  they  are  no  longer  conducted 

364 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

for  the  benefit  of  the  community  but  to  ex- 
ploit it. 

The  good  Mormon  must  purchase  his  sugar 
from  "the  Church's"  sugar  company  (Joseph 
F.  Smith,  president),  which  is  controlled 
by  the  national  sugar  trust  and  charges 
trust  prices.  He  must  buy  salt  from  "the 
Church's"  salt  monopoly  (Joseph  F.  Smith, 
president),  which  is  a  part  of,  and  pays  divi- 
dends to,  the  national  salt  trust.  He  is 
taught  to  go  for  his  merchandise  to  the  Zion's 
Co-operative  Mercantile  Institution  (Joseph  F. 
Smith,  president),  where  even  whiskey  is  sold 
under  the  symbol  of  the  All-seeing  Eye  and 
the  words  "Holiness  to  the  Lord"  in  gilt 
letters;  and  Joseph  F.  Smith,  at  the  April 
Conference,  of  1898  (according  to  the  Church's 
official  report),  scolded  those  "pretendedly 
pious"  Mormons  who  "were  shocked  and 
horrified"  to  find  "liquid  poison"  sold  under 
these  auspices — for,  as  Smith  argued,  with 
characteristic  greed,  if  the  Mormon  who 
wanted  whiskey  could  not  get  it  in  the  Church 
store,  "he  would  not  patronize  Z.C.M.L  at 
all,  but  would  go  elsewhere  to  deal!" 

The  farmers  are  "counselled"  to  buy  their 
vehicles  from  "the  Church's"  firm,  the  Con- 
solidated Wagon  and  Machine  Company 
(Joseph  F.  Smith,  president) ;  to  take  out 
their  fire  insurance  with  the  Church's  "Home 
Fire  Insurance  Company"  (Joseph  F.  Smith, 
controller) ;  and  to  insure  their  lives  with  the 

365 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Church's  "  Beneficial  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany" (Joseph  F.  Smith,  president).  The 
Salt  Lake  Knitting  Company  (of  which  Joseph 
F.  Smith  is  president)  makes,  among  other 
things,  the  sacred  knitted  garments  that  are 
prescribed  for  every  Mormon  who  takes  the 
"Endowment  Oaths,"  to  be  worn  by  him 
forever  after  as  a  shield  "against  the  Adver- 
sary;" and  these  garments  bear  the  label: 
"Approved  by  the  Presidency.  No  knitted 
garment  approved  which  does  not  bear  this 
label."  By  which  ingenious  bit  of  religious 
commercialism,  the  sacred  marks  on  the 
garments  (accepted  as  a  sort  of  passport  to 
Heaven)  have  been  increased  by  the  sacred 
Smith  trade-mark  that  admits  the  wearer 
to  the  Smith  Heaven. 

The  Church's  banking  institutions,  of  which 
Joseph  F.  Smith  is  president,  are  recommended 
as  safer  than  others  because  the  money  goes 
into  the  hands  of  "the  brethren."  Church 
newspapers  must  be  subscribed  for,  because 
all  others  are  "unreliable" — although  the 
Church's  Deseret  News  (Joseph  F.  Smith, 
president)  is  one  of  the  most  dishonest,  unjust 
and  mendacious  organs  that  ever  poisoned 
the  public  mind.  And  so  on,  through  the 
whole  list  of  business  concerns  by  which  the 
Church  authorities  are  to  profit.  The  Mor- 
mons, having  learned  of  old  the  value  of  a  solid 
community  support  for  community  enterprises 
established  in  the  interests  of  the  community, 

366 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

are  still  kept  solidly  supporting  ecclesiastical 
enterprises  administered  for  the  benefit  of  the 
hierarchy  or  its  favorites,  at  the  community's 
expense ! 

The  Utah  Light  and  Railway  Company 
(Joseph  F.  Smith,  president),  which  was  sup- 
ported by  the  tithes  of  the  Mormon  people, 
was  charging  $1.25  per  thousand  cubic  feet  for 
fuel  gas  and  $1.75  for  illuminating  gas,  just 
before  the  company  was  sold  to  the  "Harri- 
man  interests."  (The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  has  fixed  a  rate  of  80  cents  a 
thousand  as  a  fair  price  for  gas  in  New  York 
City.)  The  Salt  Lake  Street  Railway  (operat- 
ing under  a  fifty-year  franchise,  obtained  from 
the  City  Council  by  the  power  of  the  Church 
while  Joseph  F.  Smith  was  president  of  the 
company)  charges  a  five-cent  fare,  gives  but  one 
transfer,  allows  no  half  fares  for  children,  and 
pays  the  city  nothing  for  the  use  of  its  streets. 
Before  the  transfer  of  the  Church's  sugar 
stocks  to  the  trust,  the  sugar  factories  paid 
the  farmer  $4.50  a  ton  for  his  beets  and  sold 
him  sugar  for  $4.50  a  hundred  pounds;  today 
beets  are  bought  for  $4.50  a  ton,  and  sugar 
sold  at  $6.00  a  hundred.  The  price  asked  for 
salt  in  Utah,  where  it  should  be  ''dirt  cheap," 
is  the  same  as  everywhere  under  the  salt  trust. 
And  so  on — through  the  rest  of  the  list. 

To  maintain  this  system  of  sanctified  gain 
Joseph  F.  Smith  invokes  all  the  power  of  his 
"  divine  "  authority  as  "  the  mouthpiece  of  the 

367 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Lord."  He  protects  the  sugar  trust  by  pre- 
venting the  establishment  of  independent 
sugar  factories  (as  for  example  in  Sanpete  and 
Sevier  counties  in  1905),  just  as  he  protects 
the  salt  trust  by  preventing  the  competition 
of  independent  saltfgardens  (as  in  the  case 
of  Smurthwaite  and  Taylor.)  He  issues  his 
edict  of  protection  as  "the  vicegerent  of  God 
on  Earth"  to  the  Mormons;  and  he  excom- 
municates and  ostracizes,  in  this  world  and 
the  next,  the  Mormon  protest  ant  who  dares 
rebel  against  commercial  monopoly. 

He  receives  between  two  and  three  million 
dollars  a  year  in  tithes,  gives  no  accounting 
of  them,  and  has  no  responsibility  for  them, 
except  to  God  and  his  own  conscience.  He 
is  able  to  use  this  sum,  in  bulk,  at  any  given 
point,  with  a  weight  of  financial  pressure 
that  would  overbalance  any  other  such  single 
power  in  the  community.  As  "trustee  in 
trust "  for  the  Church,  he  has  the  added  income 
from  stocks  and  previous  investments;  and 
he  has  practical  control  of  the  wealth  of  all 
the  leading  men  of  the  Church  to  assist  him, 
if  he  should  call  upon  them  for  assistance. 
He  uses  his  financial  dictatorship  to  support 
monopoly  against  the  assault  of  Gentile 
opposition,  and  he  compels  the  Gentile  to  pay 
tribute  as  the  Mormon  does. 

He  backs  his  financial  power  with  his  con- 
trol of  legislation.  He  can  not  only  prevent 
the  passage  of  any  laws  against  his  favored 

368 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

monopolies,  but  (as  in  the  case  of  the  smelters) 
he  can  reduce  independents  to  submission 
by  threatening  them  with  procured  laws  to 
penalize  them.  He  largely  controls  the 
" labor  troubles"  of  the  State  by  controlling 
the  obedience  of  the  Mormon  laboring  men. 
He  can  influence  judges,  officers  of  the  law 
and  all  the  agents  of  local  government  by 
his  power  as  political  "Boss,"  and  the  same 
influence  extends,  through  his  representatives 
at  Washington,  to  the  local  activities  of  Federal 
authority.  He  can  check  and  govern  public 
opinion  among  his  subjects  by  announcing 
"  the  will  of  God  "  to  them  through  the  officers 
of  the  Church  in  every  department  of  religious 
administration.  He  is,  therefore,  at  once  the 
modern  "money  king,"  the  absolute  political 
Czar  the  social  despot  and  the  infallible  Pope 
of  his  "Kingdom." 

Just  as  men  fight  for  the  retention  of  a 
throne  and  the  maintenance  of  a  dynasty, 
so  he  and  his  courtiers  defend  his  rule  and 
maintain  his  autocracy  with  every  weapon 
of  absolutism.  And  just  as  royalty,  while 
possessed  of  unlimited  wealth,  has  never 
lacked  mercenaries,  press  bureaus,  and  all 
the  sycophantic  defenders  of  a  crown,  so 
Smith  is  able  to  command  an  array  of  service 
as  great  as  any  ever  brought  to  the  defence 
of  a  social  system.  This  singular  and  enor- 
mous power  stands  solidly  against  any  move- 
ment of  domestic  reform;  and,  by  its  alliance 

369 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

with  the  national  rulers  in  finance  and  politics, 
it  is  saved  from  the  danger  of  "  foreign  "  inter- 
vention. Like  every  other  such  absolutism, 
it  is  crushing  out  the  life  of  its  subjects;  for, 
in  spite  of  the  industry,  the  thrift,  and  the 
abstemiousness  of  the  Mormon  people,  they 
are  sinking  under  the  burden  of  imposed 
exactions.  Although  Utah  became  a  terri- 
tory in  1853,  and  had  its  well-settled  towns 
at  that  time,  and  was  organized  in  a  compact 
social  body  for  the  upbuilding  of  its  material 
prosperity  before  any  of  the  surrounding  states 
had  received  an  organic  act  as  a  territory, 
Utah  has  now  lost  its  leadership,  and  the  indi- 
vidual initiative  and  enterprise  of  the  typical 
Western  community  have  been  relatively  lost. 
In  this  process  of  degeneration,  one  of  the 
most  promising  modern  experiments  in  com- 
munism has  been  frustrated  and  brought  to 
ruin.  In  the  early  nineties,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong, 
of  New  York  City,  viewed  the  Mormon  system 
with  an  interested  admiration.  He  saw  that 
by  contribution,  and  co-operation,  and  arbi- 
tration, the  energies  of  the  people  were  con- 
served and  the  products  of  their  prosperity 
more  equally  distributed  than  under  the  con- 
ditions of  economic  war  then  prevalent  else- 
where. He  thought  he  saw  in  Utah  a  possible 
solution  of  some  of  the  social  problems  of  our 
civilization.  But,  a  few  years  ago,  he  con- 
fessed that  the  Mormon  system  was  no  longer 
worthy  of  stucty.  It  had  been  destroyed  by 

370 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  greed  of  its  rulers.  Community  contribu- 
tions were  being  used  for  individual  com- 
mercialism and  the  aggrandizement  of  leaders. 
The  aged  and  infirm  poor,  who  had  contributed 
through  all  the  working  period  of  their  lives, 
were  being  thrust  into  poor  houses.  The 
ambition  of  the  earlier  Prophets,  to  make  the 
people  great  in  their  community  prosperity 
and  happiness,  has  been  lost  in  the  new  desire 
of  the  head  of  the  Church  to  exhibit  that 
greatness  only  in  his  own  person.  The  Mor- 
mon people  had  become  the  working  slaves 
of  a  financial  and  political  and  religious  autoc- 
racy, and  Mormonism  was  no  longer  anything 
but  a  hopeless  failure  as  a  social  experiment. 
It  is  difficult  to  say  how  much  of  this  failure 
was  due  to  the  character  of  the  present 
Prophet,  and  how  much  to  the  national  con- 
ditions that  are  threatening  the  success  of 
democracy  in  every  state  of  the  Union.  It 
would  seem  that  the  conditions  were  ideal  for 
the  production  of  just  such  a  man  as  Smith, 
and  that  Smith  was  by  nature  fitted  for  the 
greatest  growth  under  just  such  conditions. 
He  came  to  power  with  none  of  the  feeling  of 
responsibility  to  his  people  which  the  earlier 
leaders  showed.  He  considered  that  the 
people  lived  for  him,  not  that  he  lived  for 
the  people.  He  regarded  the  Mormon  system 
as  an  establishment  of  his  family,  to  which 
he  had  the  family  right  of  inheritance;  and 
he  waited  with  a  sulky  impatience  for  the 

371 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

deaths  of  the  men  who  stood  between  him  and 
the  control  of  his  family's  Church.  It  was 
as  if  he  accepted  his  predecessors  as  exercising 
their  powers,  during  an  inter- regnum,  by  the 
consent  of  the  Mormon  people,  but  saw  him- 
self acceding  to  the  throne  by  family  right 
and  the  order  of  divinity. 

He  had  no  financial  ability;  he  had  no 
considerable  property  when  he  became  presi- 
dent of  the  Church  at  sixty-three.  Nor  did 
he  need  any  such  ability.  The  continuous 
inflow  of  money — to  be  used  without  account- 
ability to  anyone — and  the  wealth  of  oppor- 
tunity offered  by  the  men  who  wished  his 
aid  in  exploiting  his  people,  made  it  unneces- 
sary that  he  should  have  any  creative  finan- 
cial vision.  He  needed  only  to  move,  with 
his  opportunity,  along  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance— which  was  also,  with  him,  the  line  of 
choice. 

He  had,  through  all  his  years,  shown  an 
obvious  envy  of  any  member  of  the  Church 
whose  circumstances  were  better  than  his 
own.  It  was  apparent  in  his  manner  that 
he  regarded  such  success  in  the  community 
as  an  encroachment  upon  the  Smith  preroga- 
tives. As  soon  as  he  came  to  power,  he 
accepted  every  opportunity  of  self-aggrandize- 
ment as  a  new  Smith  prerogative.  And  the 
system  of  modern  capitalism  appealed  at  once 
to  his  ambition.  By  the  older  method  of 
tithes  and  conscriptions,  he  could  collect  only 

372 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

from  the  devotees  of  the  Church ;  by  the  larger 
exploitation  he  could  levy  tribute  upon  the 
Gentiles  too. 

And  he  was  aided  by  the  Mormons  them- 
selves. They  had  been  brought  together,  in 
obedience  to  "a  command  of  God,"  in  order 
that  the  community,  by  avoiding  the  sins  of 
the  world,  might  be  saved  from  the  plagues 
that  were  to  descend  upon  the  world  because 
of  its  injustice.  They  were  a  credulous 
people,  ignorant  of  the  sins  of  modern  finance, 
and  prepared  by  industry  and  isolation  to  be 
exploited.  Their  previous  leaders  had  ob- 
served, as  a  warning  only,  the  modern  aspira- 
tion for  vast  wealth  obtained  by  economic 
injustice ;  but  that  aspiration  made  an  instant 
appeal  to  Smith's  ambition;  and  it  is  the 
peculiar  iniquity  of  conditions  in  Utah  today 
that  his  ambition  has  betrayed  his  people  to 
the  very  evils  which  they  were  originally 
organized  to  escape. 

In  an  earlier  time  it  was  the  pride  of  the 
leader  that  the  community  in  the  large  was 
advancing  and  the  average  of  conditions  im- 
proving. Today  the  leader  assumes  that  as 
he  grows  richer  the  people  are  prospering 
and  "  the  revelations  of  God  "  being  vindicated 
in  practice.  He  speaks  with  pride  of  "our" 
growth  and  wealth  under  "  the  benign  author- 
ity of  the  Almighty"  and  His  "temporal 
revelations" — because  he  himself  has  been 
enriched  by  the  perversion  of  these  same  laws 

373 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

— very  much  as  the  " captain  of  industry" 
elsewhere  boasts  of  the  "prosperity"  of  the 
country,  because  the  few  are  growing  so  rich 
at  the  expense  of  the  many. 

Along  with  this  strain  of  commercial  greed 
in  Smith,  there  is  an  equally  strong  strain  of 
religious  fanaticism  that  justifies  the  greed 
and  sanctifies  it,  to  itself.  He  believes  (as 
Apostle  Orson  Pratt  taught,  by  authority 
of  the  Church) :  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  an 
order  of  government  established  by  divine 
authority.  It  is  the  only  legal  government 
that  can  exist  in  any  part  of  the  universe. 
All  other  governments  are  illegal  and  un- 
authorized. .  .  .  Any  people  attempting  to 
govern  themselves  by  laws  of  their  own  mak- 
ing, and  by  officers  of  their  own  appointment, 
are  in  direct  rebellion  against  the  Kingdom 
of  God."  Smith  believes  that  over  this  King- 
dom the  Smiths  have  been,  by  Divine  revela- 
tion, ordained  to  rule.  He  believes  that  his 
authority  is  the  absolute  and  unquestionable 
authority  of  God  Himself.  He  believes  that 
in  all  the  affairs  of  life  he  has  the  same  right 
over  his  subjects  that  the  Creator  has  over 
His  creatures.  He  believes  that  he  has  been 
appointed  to  use  the  Mormon  people  as  he  in 
his  inspired  wisdom  sees  fit  to  use  them,  in 
order  the  more  firmly  to  establish  God's  King- 
dom on  Earth  against  the  Powers  of  Evil. 

He  believes  that  the  people  of  the  American 
Republic,  "being  governed  by  laws  of  their 

374 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

own  making  and  by  officers  of  their  own  ap- 
pointment," are  in  direct  rebellion  against 
"his  Kingdom  of  God."  He  believes  that 
the  national  government  is  destined  to  be 
broken  in  pieces  by  his  power;  that  it  has 
only  been  preserved  from  destruction  by  the 
concessions  recently  made  by  the  Federal 
authorities;  and  that  it  can  only  continue 
to  save  itself  so  long  as  it  shall  recognize 
Smith's  ambassadors  at  Washington — and  so 
allow  him  to  work  out  its  destruction  in  the 
fullness  of  time. 

But  with  all  this  insanity  of  pretension  he 
has  a  sort  of  cowardly  shrewdness,  acquired 
in  his  days  of  hiding  "on  the  underground." 
On  the  witness  stand  in  Washington  he  denied 
that  he  had  had  any  direct  communication  with 
God  by  revelation;  and  then  he  returned  to 
Utah  and  pleaded  from  the  pulpit  that  on  this 
point  he  had  lied  in  Washington  in  order 
to  escape  saying  what  his  "inquisitors"  had 
wished  him  to  say  in  order  to  get  him  "into 
a  trap."  He  preaches  in  Utah  that  to  deny 
the  doctrine  of  polygamy  is  to  reject  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ;  before  the  Senate 
committee  he  was  coward  enough  to  put  the 
blame  of  his  polygamous  cohabitation  upon 
his  five  wives.  In  Washington  he  claimed 
that  the  Gentiles  of  Utah  condoned  polyga- 
mous cohabitation  and  had  a  liberal  sym- 
pathy for  the  Church ;  but  at  St.  George,  Utah, 
for  example  (in  September,  1904),  he  was 

375 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

reported  by  a  Church  newspaper  as  saying: 
"The  Gentiles  are  coming  among  us  to  buy 
our  homes  and  land.  We  should  not  sell  to 
them,  as  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God."  He  is  that  most  perfect  of  all  hypo- 
crites— the  fanatic  who  believes  that  he  is 
lying  in  the  service  of  the  Almighty. 

In  the  early  spring  of  1888, 1  was  in  Washing- 
ton, where  measures  of  proscription  were  then 
being  prepared  against  our  people;  and,  early 
in  the  morning,  as  I  walked  up  Massachusetts 
Avenue,  I  saw  Joseph  F.  Smith  approaching 
me.  For  several  years  he  had  been  "on  the 
underground"  under  the  name  of  "Joseph 
Mack" — now  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  with 
one  wife;  now  hidden,  with  another,  among 
the  faithful  in  some  Mormon  village ;  or  again 
with  a  third,  in  Washington  (which  was  prob- 
ably as  safe  a  place  as  any)  presiding  secretly 
over  the  Church  lobby.  As  he  passed  me, 
with  his  head  down,  preoccupied,  I  said: 
"Good  morning,  President  Smith."  He 
jumped  as  if  I  had  been  a  Deputy  Marshal — 
with  such  a  sudden  start  of  fear  that  his  silk 
hat  rolled  on  the  pavement  and  his  umbrella 
dropped  from  his  hand.  He  drew  back  from 
me  as  if  he  were  about  to  take  to  his  heels. 
Then  he  recognized  me,  of  course,  and  was 
quickly  reassured;  but  his  embarrassment 
continued  for  some  time,  awkwardly. 

But  a  short  time  ago  the  President  of  the 
United  States  stood  in  the  Salt  Lake  Taber- 

376 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

nacle  (which  is  " Joseph  Mack's"  capitol  and 
Vatican)  and  addressed  a  multitude  that  had 
assembled  not  more  to  honor  the  Chief  Execu- 
tive of  the  nation  than  to  pay  their  almost 
idolatrous  tribute  of  devotion  to  the  head  of 
their  Church,  who  was  reigning  there  in  the 
pulpit  with  President  Taft.  "Joseph  Mack" 
no  longer  fears  Deputy  Marshals — he  appoints 
them;  and  the  present  United  States  Marshal 
of  Utah  would  refuse  to  serve  a  paper  under 
the  direction  of  the  entire  power  of  the  United 
States  government  if  "  Joseph  Mack"  forbade 
the  service.  He  no  longer  fears  the  proscrip- 
tions of  legislators  at  Washington ;  they  come 
to  him,  through  the  leaders  of  their  parties, 
and  arrange  with  him  for  the  support  of  the 
trans-Mississippi  states  in  which  the  influence 
of  his  Church  control  is  determinative.  He 
no  longer  hides  his  wives,  at  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  and  visits  them  by  stealth ;  they  occupy 
a  row  of  houses  along  one  of  the  principal 
streets  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  the  pilgrim 
and  the  tourist  alike  admire  his  magnificence 
as  they  go  by.  He  is  still  a  law-breaker.  He 
stands  even  more  in  defiance  of  the  authority 
of  the  nation  than  he  did  in  1888,  and  he  hates 
that  authority  as  much  as  ever.  But  he  is 
today  not  only  the  Prophet  of  the  Church; 
he  is  the  Prophet  of  Mammon;  and  all  the 
powers  and  principalities  of  Mammon  now 
give  him  gloriously:  "All  Hail!" 


377 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  SUBJECTS  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

But  what  of  the  Mormon  people?  How 
can  such  leaders,  directing  the  Church  to 
purposes  that  have  become  so  cruel,  so  selfish, 
so  dangerous  and  so  disloyal — how  can  they 
maintain  their  power  over  followers  who  are 
themselves  neither  criminal  nor  degraded  ? 
That  is  a  question  which  has  given  the  pause 
of  doubt  to  many  criticisms  of  the  Mormon 
communism  of  our  day.  That  is  the  con- 
sideration which  has  obtained  from  the  nation 
the  protection  of  tolerance  under  which  the 
Prophets  flourish.  For  not  only  are  the  Mor- 
mon men  and  women  obviously  as  worthy 
as  any  in  the  United  States:  there  is  plainly 
much  of  community  value  in  their  social  life ; 
there  is  manifestly  a  great  deal  of  efficiency 
for  human  good  in  their  system  and  in^the 
leadership  by  which  it  is  directed;  andtthis 
good  is  so  apparent  that  it  appeals  easily  to 
the  sympathetic  conscience  and  uninformed 
mind  of  the  country  at  large. 

Let  me  try,  then,  to  exhibit  and  to  analyze 
the  causes  that  keep  such  a  virtuous  and 
sturdy  people  loyally  supporting  the  leader- 
ship of  men  so  unworthy  of  them  that  if  the 
people  were  as  bad  as  the  ends  to  which  they 

378 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

are  being  now  directed,  modern  Mormonism 
would  be  destroyed  by  its  own  evils. 

In  the  first  place,  the  average  Mormon 
chief  is  sincere  in  his  pretensions  and  self- 
justified  in  his  aims.  Usually,  he  has  been 
born,  in  the  Church,  to  a  family  that  sees 
itself  set  apart,  in  holiness,  from  the  rest  of 
humanity,  as  the  direct  heirs  of  the  ancient 
prophets  or  even  as  the  lineal  descendants  of 
Christ.  From  his  earliest  age  of  understand- 
ing, he  is  taught  the  divine  splendor  of  his 
birth  and  impressed  with  the  high  duties  of 
his  family  privilege  in  being  permitted  to  bear 
a  part  in  preparing  the  earth  for  the  second 
coming  of  the  Savior.  He  is  taught  that, 
though  all  the  world  may  be  saved  and  nearly 
all  the  people  of  this  sphere  will  in  some  eter- 
nity work  out  a  measure  of  salvation,  he  and 
143,999  others  are  to  be  a  band  of  the  elect 
who  shall  stand  about  the  Savior,  on  Mount 
Zion,  in  the  final  day. 

He  is  taught  that,  next  to  Christ,  Joseph 
Smith,  the  founder  of  the  faith,  has  per- 
formed the  largest  mission  for  the  salvation 
of  the  world;  that  in  the  councils  of  the  Gods, 
when  the  Creator  measured  off  the  ages  of  the 
human  race  on  this  earth,  to  the  Savior  was 
apportioned  "the  meridian  of  time,"  and  to 
Joseph  Smith,  the  Prophet,  was  given  the 
"last  dispensation,"  which  is  "the  fullness 
of  times,"  in  order  that  the  world,  having 
apostatized  from  the  atonement  and  the 

379 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

redemption,   might  be  saved  to  heaven  by 
Joseph,  uthe.,Choice  Seer." 

He  is  taught  that  the  disciples  of  the  Mor- 
mon Prophet  are  literally  the  disciples  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  that  the  laws  of  right  and  wrong 
are  within  the  direction  and  subject  to  the 
authority  of  the  Prophet,  to  be  changed, 
enlarged  or  even  revoked  by  his  command- 
ment; that  all  human  laws  are  equally  sub- 
ject to  his  will,  to  be  made  or  unmade  at  his 
order;  that  he  can  condemn,  by  his  excom- 
munication, any  man  or  any  nation  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  Almighty  here  and  hereafter; 
and  that  he  can  pronounce  a  blessing  upon 
the  head  of  any  man,  or  the  career  of  any 
people,  by  virtue  of  which  blessing  power 
shall  be  held  in  this  world  righteously  and 
the  man  elevated  to  sit  at  the  right  hand  of 
God  in  the  world  to  come.  He  is  taught  that 
the  greatest  sin  which  can  be  committed- 
next  to  the  denial  of  Christ — is  to  raise  hand 
or  voice  against  "the  Lord's  anointed,"  the 
Mormon  prophets.  And,  for  morality,  he 
is  taught  from  his  infancy,  that  he  must 
scrupulously  practise  those  special  virtues  of 
his  cult,  industry,  thrift,  purity  (except  as  in 
later  life  he  shall  be  inducted  into  the  practice 
of  the  new  polygamy)  honesty  in  business, 
and  charity  toward  his  needy  fellow-men. 

Formed  in  character  by  this  teaching,  as  a 
steady  inculcation  throughout  his  youth, 
he  comes  to  manhood  strong  of  body,  deter- 

380 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

mined  of  mind,  practising  rigidly  and  intoler- 
antly his  petty  virtues  of  abstinence  from 
the  use  of  tobacco,  tea  and  coffee,  proclaim- 
ing with  fanatical  zeal  the  gospel  as  it  has 
been  proclaimed  to  him,  and  self -justified 
in  all  that  he  says  or  does  by  the  large  measure 
of  sincerity  in  his  delusions. 

And  that  is,  in  some  degree,  the  common 
training  of  all  Mormons.  Every  Mormon 
boy  attends  Sunday  School  as  soon  as  he  is 
old  enough  to  lisp  his  song  of  adoration  to 
Joseph,  the  Kingly  Prophet,  and  to  the  Savior 
with  whom  Joseph  is  early  associated  in  his 
childish  mind.  At  six  years  of  age,  he  enters 
the  Primary  Association;  at  twelve  he  is  in 
the  Young  Men's  Mutual  Improvement  Asso- 
ciation; at  fourteen  or  even  earlier,  he  stands 
in  the  fast-day  meeting  and  repeats  like  a 
creed:  "Brethren  and  Sisters,  I  feel  called 
upon  to  say  a  few  words.  I  am  not  able  to 
edify  you,  but  I  can  say  that  I  know  this  is 
the  Church  and  Kingdom  of  God,  and  I  bear 
my  testimony  that  Joseph  Smith  was  a 
Prophet  and  that  Brigham  Young  was  his 
lawful  successor,  and  that  the  Prophet  Joseph 
F.  Smith  is  heir  to  all  the  authority  which 
the  Lord  has  conferred  in  these  days  for  the 
salvation  of  men.  And  I  feel  that  if  I  live 
my  religion  and  do  nothing  to  offend  the  Holy 
Spirit  I  will  be  saved  in  the  presence  of  my 
Father  and  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  With 
these  few  words  I  will  give  way.  Praying 

381 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  Lord  to  bless  each  and  every  one  of  us  is 
my  prayer  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Amen." 

At  fourteen  he  becomes  a  Deacon  of  the 
Church.  Between  that  age  and  twenty,  he 
becomes  an  Elder.  Very  soon  thereafter 
he  becomes  "a  Seventy"  and  perhaps  a  high 
priest.  He  takes  upon  himself  "  covenants 
in  holy  places."  He  becomes  "a  priest  unto 
the  Most  High  God  "  —frequently  before  his 
eighteenth  year.  Usually  before  he  is  twenty 
he  is  sent  on  a  mission  to  proclaim  his  gospel — 
the  only  one  he  has  ever  heard  in  his  life — to 
"an  unenlightened  nation"  and  "a  wicked 
world."  For,  in  addition  to  being  taught 
that  the  Mormons  are  the  best,  most  virtuous, 
most  temperate,  most  industrious,  and  most 
God-fearing  of  all  peoples — a  thing  that  is 
dinned  into  his  ears  from  the  pulpit  every 
Sunday  in  the  year — he  has  been  convinced 
by  equal  iteration  that  the  rest  of  the  world 
is  a  festering  mass  of  corruption. 

Often  he  goes  abroad,  to  some  country 
whose  language  and  customs  he  must  learn 
and  upon  the  charity  of  whose  toilers  he  must 
depend  for  his  maintenance.  He  goes  with 
an  implicit  reliance  upon  God,  strong  in  the 
small  virtues  that  have  been  taught  him  from 
the  time  he  knelt  at  his  mother's  knee.  He 
sees,  probably  for  the  first  time,  the  afflictions 
and  the  sins  among  mankind;  and  he  keeps 
himself  unspotted  from  them,  congratulating 

382 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

himself  that  these  grossnesses  are  unknown 
to  his  sheltered  home-life  and  to  the  religion 
which  he  holds  as  the  ideal  of  his  soul.  He 
proclaims  his  belief  that  God  has  spoken  from 
the  Heavens,  through  the  Mormon  Prophet, 
in  this  last  day,  to  restore  the  gospel  of  Christ 
from  which  the  peoples  of  the  earth  have 
wandered.  He  " bears  testimony"  to  the 
whole  world,  and  he  binds  himself  to  the 
authority  of  his  Church  by  proclaiming  his 
belief  in  it. 

When  he  returns  home,  after  years  of 
service,  he  is  called  to  the  stand  in  the  taber- 
nacle to  give  a  report  of  his  work.  He  finds 
waiting  for  him  a  ready  advancement  in  the 
offices  of  the  Church,  according  as  he  may 
show  himself  worthy  of  advancement  or  as 
the  power  of  family  or  the  favor  of  ecclesias- 
tical authority  may  obtain  it  for  him.  He 
marries  a  girl  who  has  had  a  training  almost 
identical  with  his  own.  She,  too,  has  borne 
her  testimony  before  she  reached  years  of 
responsibility.  She  has  taken  her  vows  as 
a  priestess  at  the  age  when  he  was  dedicating 
himself  a  priest.  She  may  even  have  per- 
formed a  foreign  mission.  They  have  both 
been  promised  that  they  shall  become  kings 
and  queens  in  the  eternal  world.  They  are 
bound  by  their  covenants  to  obey  their 
superior  priests.  They  cannot  disregard  their 
Church  affiliations  without  recanting  their 
vows.  The  only  way  they  can  adhere  to  their 

383 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

covenants  with  their  Almighty  Father — the 
only  way  they  can  demonstrate  their  accept- 
ance of  the  atoning  power  of  the  Redeemer's 
sacrifice — is  by  yielding  such  obedience  to 
the  Prophet  as  they  would  pay  to  the  Father 
and  the  Son  if  They  were  on  earth  in  Their 
proper  persons.  To  deviate  from  this  faith- 
fulness is  to  be  marked  as  a  Judas  Iscariot 
by  all  the  Latter-Day  Saints. 

As  soon  as  the  Mormon  becomes  the  head 
of  a  family — in  addition  to  all  the  testimonies 
and  performances  which  he  must  give  as 
proof  of  his  continued  adherence — he  must 
submit  himself  and  his  household  to  the 
examination  and  espionage  of  the  ward 
teachers,  who  invade  his  home  at  least  once 
a  month.  They  enter  absolutely  as  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  house.  If  the  husband  is 
there,  they  ask  him  whether  he  performs  his 
duties  in  the  Church ;  whether  he  holds  family 
prayer  morning  and  evening;  whether  he 
" keeps  the  word  of  wisdom" — that  is,  does 
he  abstain  from  the  use  of  alcohol,  tobacco, 
tea  and  coffee — whether  he  pays  a  full  tithe 
and  all  the  prescribed  donations  to  the  Church ; 
whether  he  has  any  hard  feelings  against  any 
of  his  brethren  and  sisters;  and  finally,  does 
he  devoutly  sustain  the  Prophet  as  the  ruler 
of  God's  Kingdom  upon  earth.  These  ques- 
tions, so  far  as  they  apply,  are  put  to  each 
member  of  the  family  above  the  age  of  eight 
years.  Should  the  husband  be  away,  all  the 

384 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

inquiries  concerning  him  are  made  of  the 
wife.  If  both  parents  are  absent,  the  ques- 
tions concerning  them  are  put  to  their 
children! 

This  one  branch  of  the  ecclesiastical  ser- 
vice is  sufficient  of  itself  to  mark  the  Mormon 
Church  as  the  most  perfectly  disciplined  in- 
stitution among  mankind.  The  teachers' 
quorum  in  any  neighborhood  consists  of  some 
tried  elders,  usually  of  considerable  ability 
and  experience.  With  these  are  associated 
numerous  young  men,  many  of  them  returned 
missionaries.  The  fact  that  they  have  count- 
less other  duties  in  the  Church  and  many 
other  and  weightier  responsibilities,  is  not 
permitted  to  excuse  them  from  performing 
strictly  this  important  labor.  Perhaps  a 
dozen  or  twenty  families  are  assigned  to  a 
couple  of  teachers.  They  are  required  to 
visit  each  of  these  families  once  every  month. 
And  if  they  discover  any  lapse  of  fidelity, 
they  report  at  once  to  the  Bishop. 

No  one  who  has  not  seen  them  on  their 
rounds  will  believe  with  what  an  air  of  divinely 
privileged  authority  they  enter  a  home  and 
force  its  secrets  of  conscience — with  what  an 
imposing  and  arrogant  zeal — with  what  a 
calm  assumption  of  spiritual  overlordship 
and  inquisitorial  right.  Some  few  years  ago 
after  my  public  criticisms  of  Joseph  F.  Smith 
had  been  followed  by  my  excommunication, 
two  teachers,  on  their  monthly  rounds,  came 

385 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

to  my  home  in  the  evening  and  made  their 
way  calmly  to  the  library  where  I  was  sitting 
with  some  members  of  my  family.  I  had 
just  returned  from  a  long  absence  abroad, 
and  the  visit  was  an  untimely  intrusion  at 
its  best;  but  we  observed  the  obligations  of 
hospitality  with  what  courtesy  we  could,  and 
merely  evaded  the  familiar  questions  which 
they  began  to  put  to  us.  Finally,  the  elder 
of  the  twTo  teachers,  a  man  of  some  local 
prominence  in  the  Church,  undertook  to 
1  'bear  testimony"  to  the  wickedness  of  any- 
one who  opposed  the  divine  rule  of  Joseph  F. 
Smith;  and  when  I  cut  him  short  with  a 
request  that  he  leave  the  house,  he  was  as 
shocked  and  surprised  as  if  he  had  been 
Milton's  Archangel  Michael,  after  "the  fall," 
and  I,  a  defiant  Adam,  showing  him  the 
door. 

In  addition  to  the  visitations  of  the  ward 
teachers,  some  members  of  the  Ladies  Relief 
Society  call  upon  every  family  usually  once 
a  month,  not  only  to  gather  donations  for 
the  poor,  but  to  have  a  little  quiet  talk  with 
the  wife  and  mother  of  the  household.  These 
women  of  the  Relief  Society  are  genuine 
"  Sisters  of  Charity. ' '  In  most  cases  they  have 
themselves  plenty  of  household  cares,  yet 
they  give  much  of  their  time  to  visiting  the 
sick,  supplying  the  wants  of  the  needy  or 
ministering  to  the  miseries  of  the  afflicted; 
and  if  it  were  not  for  them  and  their  noble 

386 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

work,  the  Mormon  poor  would  fare  ill  in  these 
days  of  Mormon  Church  grandeur.  Outside 
of  their  monthly  visitations,  they  have  definite 
preaching  to  do.  At  the  meetings  of  their 
organization,  they  "bear  testimony"  that 
Joseph  was  a  Prophet — and  so  on.  They  have 
the  quarterly  stake  conferences  to  attend. 
Their  travelling  missionaries  go  from  Salt 
Lake  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  to 
institute  and  maintain  the  discipline  of  the 
organization  and  to  teach  the  methods  of  its 
practical  work  in  Nursing  Schools,  mother's 
classes  and  the  like.  They  make  up  one  of 
the  noblest  bodies  of  women  associated  with 
any  social  movement  of  humanity.  And  in 
their  zeal  and  submissiveness  they  are  so 
innocently  meek  and  "biddable"  that  they 
can  listen  with  reverence  to  young  Hyrum 
Smith  publicly  lecturing  the  grandmothers 
of  the  order  for  occasionally  partaking  of  a 
cup  of  thin  tea. 

Under  such  a  system  of  teaching,  discipline 
and  espionage,  how  can  the  average  Mormon 
man  or  woman  develop  any  independence 
of  thought  or  action?  At  what  time  of  life 
can  he  assert  himself  ?  Before  he  has  attained 
the  age  of  reason  he  has  declared  his  faith  in 
public.  If  he  shall  then,  in  his  teens,  express 
any  doubt,  the  priests  are  ready  for  him. 
"  You  have  borne  your  testimony  many  times 
in  the  Church,"  they  say  sternly.  "Were 
you  lying  then,  or  have  you  lost  the  Spirit 

387 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

of  God  through  your  transgressions?"  If 
he  reveals  any  doubt  to  the  ward  teachers, 
they  will  overwhelm  him  with  argument,  and 
either  absolutely  reconvert  him  or  silence  him 
with  authority.  The  pressure  of  family  love 
and  pride  will  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him. 
The  ecclesiastical  authorities  will  move  against 
him.  He  knows  that  every  one  of  his  relatives 
will  be  humiliated  by  his  unfaithfulness.  His 
"sin"  will  become  known  to  the  whole  com- 
munity, and  he  will  be  looked  at  askance  by 
his  friends  and  his  companions. 

After  he  has  taken  his  vows  as  a  priest,  how 
shall  he  dare  to  violate  them  ?  He  knows  that 
if  he  loses  his  faith  on  a  mission — in  other 
words,  if  he  dares  to  make  any  inquiry  into 
the  authenticity  of  the  mission  which  he  is 
performing — he  becomes  a  deserter  from  God 
in  the  very  ranks  of  battle.  He  knows  that 
he  will  be  held  forever  in  dishonor  among 
his  people;  that  he  will  be  looked  upon  as 
one  worse  than  dead;  that  he  will  ruin  his 
own  life  and  despoil  his  parents  of  all  their 
eternal  comfort  and  their  hope  in  him. 

While  I  was  editing  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune, 
a  son  of  one  of  the  famous  apostles  came  to 
me  with  some  anxious  inquiries,  and  said: 
"  Frank,  I  have  been  working  in  the  Church 
and  teaching  this  gospel  so  assiduously  for 
nearly  forty  years  that  I  have  never  had  time 
to  find  out  whether  it's  true  or  not!" 

If  the  Mormon,  in  his  later  years  of  man- 

388 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

hood,  dares  to  doubt,  he  must  either  reveal 
his  disloyalty  to  the  ward  teachers  or  continue 
to  deny  it,  from  month  to  month,  and  remain 
a  supine  servant  of  authority.  If  he  reveals 
it,  he  knows  that  the  news  of  his  defection 
will  permeate  the  entire  circle  with  which  he 
is  associated  in  politics,  in  business  and  in 
religion.  If  his  superstition  does  not  hold 
him,  his  worldly  prudence  will.  He  knows 
that  all  the  aid  of  the  community  will  be 
withdrawn  from  him;  every  voice  that  has 
expressed  affection  for  him  will  speak  in 
hate;  every  hand  that  has  clasped  his  in 
friendship  will  be  turned  against  him.  And 
into  this  very  prudence  there  enters  something 
of  a  moral  warning.  For  he  has  seen  how 
many  a  man,  deprived  of  the  association  and 
fraternity  of  the  Church,  feeling  himself 
shunned  in  a  lonely  ostracism,  has  not  been 
strong  enough  to  endure  in  rectitude  and  has 
fallen  into  dissipation.  Every  instance  of 
the  sort  is  rehearsed  by  the  faithful,  with 
many  exultant  expressions  of  mourning,  in 
the  hearing  of  the  doubter.  And  finally,  it 
is  the  prediction  of  the  priests  that  no  apos- 
tate can  prosper;  and  though  the  Mormon 
people  are  charitable  and  do  not  intend  to  be 
unjust,  they  inevitably  tend  to  fulfil  the 
prophecy  and  devote  the  apostate  to  material 
destruction. 

The  great  doctrine  of  the  Mormon  faith  is 
obedience;  the  one  proof  of  grace  is  conform- 

389 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

ity.  So  long  as  a  man  pays  a^full  tithe,  con- 
tributes all  the  required  donations,  and  yields 
unquestioningly  to  the  orders  of  the  priests, 
he  may  even  depart  in  a  moral  sense  from 
any  other  of  the  Church's  laws  and  find  him- 
self excused.  But  any  questioning  of  the 
rulership  of  the  Prophets — the  rightfulness  of 
their  authority  or  the  justice  of  its  exercise — 
is  apostasy,  is  a  denial  of  the  faith,  is  a  sin 
against  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  man  who  obeys 
in  all  things  is  promised  that  he  shall  come 
forth  in  the  morning  of  the  first  resurrection; 
the  man  who  disobeys,  and  by  his  disobedience 
apostatizes,  is  condemned  to  work  out, 
through  an  eternity  of  suffering,  his  offence 
against  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  the  first  sign 
of  defection — almost  inevitably  discovered 
in  its  incipiency — the  rebel  is  either  disciplined 
into  submission  or  at  once  pushed  over  "the 
battlements  of  Heaven!" 

By  such  perfect  means,  the  leaders,  chosen 
under  a  pretense  of  revelation  from  God, 
maintain  an  unassailable  sanctity  in  the  eyes 
of  the  people,  who  are  themselves  priests. 
These  people  implicitly  believe  that  the  voice 
of  the  leader  is  the  voice  of  God.  They  follow 
with  a  passionate  devotion  that  is  made  up 
of  a  fanatical  priestly  faith  and  of  a  sympathy 
that  sees  their  Prophets  "persecuted"  by 
an  ungenerous,  impure  and  vindictive  world. 
We  love  that  for  which  we  suffer;  and  it  has 
become  the  inheritance  of  the  Mormons  to 

390 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

love  the  priesthood,  for  whose  protection  their 
parents  and  grandparents  suffered,  and  under 
whose  oppressions  they  now  suffer  themselves. 
Joseph  Smith,   the   original   Prophet,   was 
slain  in  the  Carthage  jail;    to  the  Mormon 
mind  this  is  proof  that  he  was  the  anointed 
of  God  and  that  he  sealed  his  testimony  with 
his  blood,  as  did  the  Savior.     John  Taylor, 
afterwards  President  of  the  Church,  was  not 
slain  at  Carthage,   but  only  wounded;    and 
this  to  the  Mormons  is  proof  that  he  was  of 
the  eternal  kindred  of  the  Prophets,  because, 
under  God's  direction,  he  gave  his  blood  to 
their  defence.     But  Willard  Richards,  a  com- 
panion of  Smith  and  Taylor,  was  not  even 
injured  at  Carthage;    and  this  is  accepted  as 
proof  that  God  had  charge  of  his  holy  ones, 
and  would  not  permit  wicked  men  to  do  them 
harm.     When  the  people  left   Nauvoo   and 
journeyed  through  Iowa,  some  of  the  citizens 
of  that  state  would  not  harbor  them;    and 
this  is  argued  as  evidence  that  the  Mormon 
movement  was  God's  work,  since  the  hand  of 
the  wicked  was  against  it ;  but  in  some  locali- 
ties of  Iowa  the  emigrants  were  aided,  and 
this  also  is  proof  that  the  Mormon  movement 
was  God's  work,  since  the  hearts  of  the  people 
were  melted  to  assist  it.     When  Johnston's 
army  was  sent  to  Utah,  it  was  proof  that  the 
Mormon  Church  was  the  true  Church,  hated 
and  persecuted  by  a  wicked  nation;    when 
Johnston's  army  withdrew  without  a  battle, 

391 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

it  was  a  new  guarantee  of  the  divinity  of  the 
work;  and  it  is  even  believed  among  the 
Mormons  that  the  Civil  War  was  ordained 
from  the  heavens,  at  the  sudden  command 
of  God,  to  compel  Johnston's  withdrawal  and 
save  God's  people. 

In  the  same  way  the  persecutions  of  "the 
raid,"  and  the  cessation  of  those  persecutions 
— the  early  trials  of  poverty  and  the  present 
abundance  of  prosperity — the  threat  of  the 
Smoot  investigation  and  the  abortive  con- 
clusion of  that  exposure — are  all  argued  as 
proofs  of  the  divinity  of  a  persecuted  Church 
or  given  as  instances  of  the  miraculous  "  over- 
ruling" of  God  to  prosper  his  chosen  people. 
No  matter  what  occurs,  the  Prophets,  by 
applying  either  one  of  these  formulae,  can 
translate  the  incident  into  a  new  proof  of 
grace ;  and  their  followers  submissively  accept 
the  interpretation. 

On  the  night  of  April  18,  1905,  Joseph  F. 
Smith  and  some  eight  of  his  sons  sat  in  his 
official  box  at  the  Lalt  Lake  theatre  to  watch 
a  prize  fight  that  lasted  for  twenty  gory 
rounds.  The  Salt  Lake  Tribune  published 
the  fact  that  the  Prophet  of  God,  and  vice- 
gerent of  Christ,  had  given  the  approval  of 
his  "holy  presence"  to  this  clumsy  barbarity. 
A  devout  old  lady,  who  had  been  with  the 
Church  since  the  days  of  Nauvoo,  rebuked 
us  bitterly  for  publishing  such  a  falsehood 
about  'President  Smith.  "How  dare  you 

—  392 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

tell  such  wicked  lies  about  God's  servants?" 
she  scolded.  "President  Smith  wouldn't  do 
such  a  wicked  thing  as  attend  a  prize  fight. 
And  you  know  that  no  man  with  any  sense 
of  decency  would  take  his  young  sons  to  look 
at  such  a  dreadful  thing!"  Some  time  later, 
when  the  facts  in  the  case  had  come  to  her, 
in  her  retirement,  from  her  friends,  the  editor 
called  upon  her  to  quiz  her  about  the  incident. 
She  said :  "  I'm  sure  I  don't  see  what  business 
it  is  of  the  outside  world  anyhow  what  Presi- 
dent Smith  does.  He  has  a  right  to  go  to  the 
theatre  if  he  wants  to.  I  don't  believe  they 
would  have  anything  but  what's  good  in  the 
Salt  Lake  theatre.  It  was  built  by  our  people 
and  they  own  it.  And  if  it  wasn't  good, 
President  Smith  wouldn't  have  taken  his 
boys  there." 

And  this  was  not  merely  the  absurdity  of 
an  old  woman.  It  is  the  logic  of  all  the  faith- 
ful. The  leaders  cannot  do  wrong — because 
it  is  not  wrong,  if  they  do  it.  No  criticism 
of  them  can  be  effective.  No  act  of  theirs 
can  be  proven  an  error.  If  they  do  not  do  a 
thing,  it  was  right  not  to  do  it ;  and  it  would 
have  been  a  sin  if  it  had  been  done.  But  if 
they  do  that  thing,  then  it  was  right  to  do  it; 
and  it  would  have  been  a  sin  if  it  had  not  been 
done. 

This  reliance  upon  the  almighty  power  and 
prophetic  infallibility  of  the  leaders  prevents 
the  Mormon  people  from  truly  appreciating 

393 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  dangers  that  threaten  them.  It  keeps 
them  ignorant  of  outside  sentiment.  It  makes 
them  despise  even  a  national  hostility.  And 
it  has  left  them  without  gratitude,  too,  for  a 
national  grace.  Before  these  people  can  be 
roused  to  any  independence  of  responsible 
thought,  it  will  be  necessary  to  break  their 
trust  in  the  ability  of  their  leaders  to  make 
bargains  of  protection  with  the  world;  and 
then  it  will  still  be  necessary  to  force  the  eyes 
of  their  self-complacency  to  turn  from  the 
satisfied  contemplation  of  their  own  virtues. 
"  You  will  never  be  able  to  reach  the  conscience 
of  the  Mormons,"  a  man  who  knows  them  has 
declared.  "  I  have  had  my  experiences  with 
both  leaders  and  people.  If  you  tell  them 
1  You're  ninety- nine-and-one-half  per  cent, 
pure  gold,'  they  will  ask,  surprised  and  in- 
dignant: 'What?  Why,  what's  the  matter 
with  the  other  half  per  cent.  ? ' 


394 


CHAPTER  XX 

CONCLUSION 

Of  the  men  who  could  have  written  this 
narrative,  some  are  dead;  some  are  prudent; 
some  are  superstitious;  and  some  are  per- 
sonally foresworn.  It  appeared  to  me  that 
the  welfare  of  Utah  and  the  common  good  of 
the  whole  United  States  required  the  publica- 
tion of  the  facts  that  I  have  tried  to  demon- 
strate. Since  there  was  apparently  no  one 
else  who  felt  the  duty  and  also  had  the  in- 
formation or  the  wish  to  write,  it  seemed  my 
place  to  undertake  it.  And  I  have  done  it 
gladly.  For  when  I  was  subscribing  the 
word  of  the  Mormon  chiefs  for  the  fulfilment 
of  our  statehood  pledges,  I  engaged  my  own 
honor  too,  and  gave  bond  myself  against  the 
very  treacheries  that  I  have  here  recorded.  BANCRO 

We  promised  that  the  Church  had  forever^- 
renounced  the  doctrine  of  polygamy  and  the 
practice  of  plural  marriage  living,  by  a  "reve- 
lation from  God  "  promulgated  by  the  supreme 
Prophet  of  the  Church  and  accepted  by  the 
vote  of  the  whole  congregation  assembled 
in  conference.  We  promised  the  retirement 
of  the  Mormon  Prophets  from  the  political 
direction  of  their  followers — the  abrogation 
of  the^claim  that  the  Mormon  Church  was 

395 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

the  "Kingdom  of  God"  re-established  upon 
earth  to  supersede  all  civil  government — 
the  abandonment  by  the  Church  of  any 
authority  to  exercise  a  temporal  power  in 
competition  with  the  civil  law.  We  promised 
to  make  the  teaching  and  practice  of  the 
Church  conform  to  the  institutions  of  a 
Republic  in  which  all  citizens  are  equal  in 
liberty.  We  promised  that  the  Church  should 
cease  to  accumulate  property  for  the  support 
of  illegal  practices  and  un-American  govern- 
ment. And  we  made  a  record  in  proof  of  our 
promises  by  the  anti-polygamy  manifesto 
of  1890  and  its  public  ratification;  by  the 
petition  for  amnesty  and  the  acceptance  of 
amnesty  upon  conditions;  by  the  provisions 
of  Utah's  enabling  act  and  of  Utah's  state 
constitution;  by  the  acts  of  Congress  and  the 
judicial  decisions  restoring  escheated  Church 
property;  by  the  proceedings  of  the  Federal 
courts  of  Utah  in  re-opening  citizenship  to 
the  alien  members  of  the  Mormon  Church; 
by  the  acquiescence  of  the  Gentiles  of  Utah 
in  the  proceedings  by  which  statehood  was 
obtained;  and  finally,  and  most  indisputably, 
by  the  admission  of  Utah  into  equal  sover- 
eignty in  the  Union — since  that  admission 
would  never  have  been  granted,  except  upon 
the  explicit  understanding  that  the  state  was 
to  uphold  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the 
American  republic  in  accordance  with  our 
covenants. 

396 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Of  all  these  promises  the  Church  authorities 
have  kept  not  one.  The  doctrine  and  prac- 
tice of  polygamy  have  been  restored  by  the 
Church,  and  plural  marriage  living  is  prac- 
tised by  the  ruler  of  the  kingdom  and  his 
favorites  with  all  the  show  and  circumstance 
of  an  oriental  court.  There  are  now  being 
born  in  his  domains  thousands  of  unfortunate 
children  outside  the  pale  of  law  and  conven- 
tion, for  whom  there  can  be  entertained  no 
hope  that  any  statute  will  ever  give  them  a 
place  within  the  recognition  of  civilized  so- 
ciety. The  Prophet  of  the  Church  rules  with 
an  absolute  political  power  in  Utah,  with 
almost  as  much  authority  in  Idaho  and  Wy- 
oming, and  with  only  a  little  less  autocracy 
in  parts  of  Colorado,  Montana,  Oregon,  Wash- 
ington, California,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 
He  names  the  Representatives  and  Senators 
in  Congress  from  his  own  state,  and  influences 
decisively  the  selection  of  such  "  deputies 
of  the  people"  from  many  of  the  surrounding 
states.  Through  his  ambassadors  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  sitting  in 
House  and  Senate,  he  chooses  the  Federal 
officials  for  Utah  and  influences  the  appoint- 
ment of  those  for  the  neighboring  states  and 
territories.  He  commands  the  making  and 
unmaking  of  state  law.  He  holds  the  courts 
and  the  prosecuting  officers  to  a  strict  account- 
ability. He  levies  tribute  upon  the  people 
of  Utah  and  helps  to  loot  the  citizens  of  the 

397 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

whole  nation  by  his  alliance  with  the  political 
and  financial  Plunderbund  at  Washington. 
He  has  enslaved  the  subjects  of  his  kingdom 
absolutely,  and  he  looks  to  it  as  the  destiny 
of  his  Church  to  destroy  all  the  governments 
of  the  world  and  to  substitute  for  them  the 
theocracy — the  "government  by  God"  and 
administration  by  oracle — of  his  successors. 
And  yet,  even  so,  I  could  not  have  recorded 
the  incidents  of  this  betrayal  as  mere  matters 
of  current  history — and  I  would  never  have 
written  them  in  vindication  of  myself — if  I 
had  not  been  certain  that  there  is  a  remedy 
for  the  evil  conditions  in  Utah,  and  that  such 
a  narrative  as  this  will  help  to  hasten  the 
remedy  and  right  the  wrong.  Except  for 
the  aggressive  aid  given  by  the  national  ad- 
ministrations to  the  leaders  of  the  Mormon 
Church,  the  people  of  Utah  and  the  inter- 
mountain  states  would  never  have  permitted 
the  revival  of  a  priestly  tyranny  in  politics. 
Except  for  the  protection  of  courts  and  the 
enforced  silence  of  politicians  and  journalists, 
polygamy  could  not  have  been  restored  in 
the  Mormon  Church.  Except  for  the  inter- 
ference of  powerful  influences  at  Washington 
to  coerce  the  Associated  Press  and  affect 
the  newspapers  of  the  country,  the  Mormon 
leaders  would  never  have  dared  to  defy  the 
sensibilities  of  our  civilization.  Except  for 
the  greed  of  the  predatory  "Interests"  of 
the  nation,  the  commerical  absolutism  of  the 

398 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Mormon  hierarchy  could  never  have  been 
established.  The  present  conditions  in  the 
Mormon  kingdom  are  due  to  national  influ- 
ences. The  remedy  for  those  conditions  is 
the  withdrawal  of  national  sympathy  and 
support. 

Break  the  power  at  Washington  of  Joseph 
F.  Smith,  ruler  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and 
every  seeker  after  federal  patronage  in  Utah 
will  desert  him.  Break  his  power  as  a  political 
partner  of  the  Republican  party  now — and 
of  the  Democratic  party  should  it  succeed  to 
office — and  every  ambitious  politician  in  the 
West  will  rebel  against  his  throne.  Break 
his  power  to  control  the  channels  of  public 
communication  through  interested  politicians 
and  commercial  agencies,  and  the  sentiment 
of  the  civilized  world  will  join  with  the  revolt 
of  the  "American  movement"  in  Utah  to 
overthrow  his  tyrannies.  Break  his  connec- 
tion with  the  illegal  trusts  and  combines  of 
the  United  States,  and  his  financial  power 
will  cease  to  be  a  terror  and  a  menace  to  the 
industry  and  commerce  of  the  intermountain 
country. 

The  nation  owes  Utah  such  a  rectification, 
for  the  nation  has  been,  in  this  matter,  a  chief 
sinner  and  a  strong  encourager  of  sin.  Presi- 
dent Theodore  Roosevelt,  representing  the 
majesty  of  the  Republic,  stayed  us  when  we 
might  have  won  our  own  liberties  in  the  revolt 
that  was  provoked  by  the  election  of  Senator- 

399 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

Apostle  Reed  Smoot.  Misled  by  political 
and  personal  advisers,  the  President  procured 
delays  in  the  Smoot  investigation.  He  se- 
duced senators  from  their  convictions.  He 
certified  the  ambassador  from  the  Kingdom 
of  God  as  a  qualified  senator  of  the  United 
States.  He  gave  the  hand  of  fellowship  to 
Joseph,  the  tyrant  of  the  Kingdom.  He 
rebuked  our  friends  and  his  own,  in  their 
struggle  for  our  freedom,  by  warning  them 
that  they  were  raising  the  flag  of  a  religious 
warfare.  He  filled  the  Mormon  priests  with 
the  belief  that  they  might  proceed  unrestrain- 
edly to  the  sacrifice  of  women  and  children 
upon  the  polygamous  altar,  to  the  absolute 
rule  of  politics  in  the  intermountain  states, 
and  to  the  commercial  exploitation  of  their 
community  in  partnership  with  the  trusts. 
The  one  policy  that  President  Taft  seems  to 
have  accepted  unimpaired  from  his  predecessor 
is  this  same  respect  for  the  power  of  the  Mor- 
mon kingdom.  In  his  placid  but  whole- 
hearted way  he  has  encouraged  his  co-ordinate 
ruler,  the  Mormon  Prophet,  and  extended 
the  Executive  license  to  the  support  and  in- 
evitable increase  of  these  religious  tyrannies 
of  the  Mormon  hierarchs  which  now  the  people 
of  Utah,  unaided,  are  wholly  unable  to  combat. 
And  the  nation  owes  such  a  rectification 
not  only  to  Utah,  but  also  to  itself.  The 
commercial  and  financial  Plunderbund  that 
is  now  preying  upon  the  whole  country  is 

400 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

sustained  at  Washington  by  the  agents  of 
the  Mormon  Church.  The  Prophet  not  only 
delivers  his  own  subjects  up  to  pillage;  he 
helps  to  deliver  the  people  of  the  entire  United 
States.  His  senators  are  not  representatives 
of  a  political  party;  they  are  the  tools  of 
"the  Interests"  that  are  his  partners.  The 
shameful  conditions  in  Utah  are  not  isolated 
and  peculiar  to  that  state;  they  are  largely 
the  result  of  national  conditions  and  they 
have  a  national  effect.  The  Prophet  of  Utah 
is  not  a  local  despot  only:  he  is  a  national 
enemy;  and  the  nation  must  deal  with  him. 
I  do  not  ask  for  a  resumption  of  cruelty, 
for  a  return  to  proscription.  I  ask  only  that 
the  nation  shall  rouse  itself  to  a  sense  of  its 
responsibility.  The  Mormon  Church  has 
shown  its  ability  to  conform  to  the  demands 
of  the  republic — even  by  "revelation  from 
God  "  if  necessary.  The  leaders  of  the  Church 
are  now  defiant  in  their  treasons  only  because 
the  nation  has  ceased  to  reprove  and  the 
national  administrations  have  powerfully  en- 
couraged. As  soon  as  the  Mormon  hierarchy 
discovers  that  the  people  of  this  country, 
wearied  of  violated  treaties  and  broken  cove- 
nants, are  about  to  exclude  the  political  agents 
of  the  Prophet  from  any  participation  in 
national  affairs,  the  advisers  of  his  inspiration 
will  quickly  persuade  him  to  make  a  concession 
to  popular  wrath.  As  soon  as  the  "  Interests  " 
realize  that  the  burden  of  shame  in  Utah  is 

401 


UNDER  THE  PROPHET  IN  UTAH 

too  large  to  be  comfortable  on  their  backs, 
they  will  throw  it  off.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  will  be  unable  to  gain  votes 
by  patronizing  the  crucifiers  of  women  and 
children.  The  national  administrations  will 
not  dare  to  stand  against  the  efforts  of  the 
Gentiles  and  independent  Mormons  of  Utah 
to  regain  their  liberty.  And  Utah,  the  Islam 
of  the  West,  will  depose  its  old  Sultan  and 
rise  free. 

With  this  hope — in  this  conviction — I  have 
written,  in  all  candor,  what  no  reasons  of 
personal  advantage  or  self -justification  could 
have  induced  me  to  write.  I  shall  be  accused 
of  rancor,  of  religious  antagonism,  of  political 
ambition,  of  egotistical  pride.  But  no  man 
who  knows  the  truth  will  say  sincerely  that 
I  have  lied.  Whatever  is  attributed  as  my 
motive,  my  veracity  in  this  book  will  not 
be  successfully  impeached.  In  that  confi- 
dence, I  leave  all  the  attacks  that  guilt  and 
bigotry  can  make  upon  me,  to  the  public  to 
whom  they  will  be  addressed.  The  truth,  in 
its  own  time,  will  prevail,  in  spite  of  cunning. 
I  am  willing  to  await  that  time — for  myself — 
and  for  the  Mormon  people. 

THE  END 


402 


